Everyone likes a good road trip, right? Not so, if you're talking about the cross-country drive the characters take in the The Lucky Ones, a film about three soldiers on leave from Iraq.
The reasons for their trips home vary in levels of absurdity: Private Dunn (Rachel McAdams) is bringing her dead boyfriend's Elvis guitar back to his parents, Sergeant Poole (Michael Peña) has been rendered impotent in an accident involving a piece of shrapnel and Sergeant Cheever (Tim Robbins) was injured by a falling Port-A-Potty. When a New York power outage causes the temporary shutdown of JFK, the three decide to put aside their differences in personality and journey together to St. Louis.
And what a crazy journey it is. Over the course of their scenic drive through the countryside, there's a bar brawl, a major car accident, several meltdowns, a tornado and a camping trip involving hookers. Because if you're going overnighting in a park, it's pretty likely that you'll run into someone who can "professionally" help Poole overcome his performance problems. The circumstances are often so extreme that the viewer ends up laughing at the absurd situation instead of listening to the dialogue.
The movie's saving grace is the skillful acting. Although some of the jokes are good for a quick chuckle, it's the dramatic scenes that are the strongest. In retelling their experiences, Robbins and McAdams highlight the horrors of war, however briefly. But the rare poignant moments only serve to make the viewer more confused about what kind of emotion this film hopes to elicit.
A hodge-podge of trite jokes, contrived situations and serious war anecdotes, this film vacillates between comedy and drama without bridging the gap between the two. At its best, the film is insightful - a necessary reminder of the struggles of being a soldier in a deplorable war. Most of the time, however, this movie has the vibe of a cheap trick, a joke without a punch line. If the Hollywood liberals want us to take Iraq seriously, maybe they should start by doing so themselves.
