By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Jason Hall
Cast: Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Joe Cole Beulah Koale, Erin Drake, Scot Haze, Omar J. Dorsey and Amy Schumer.
Rating: Very Good.
Academy Award Nominee Jason Hall, writer of 2014´s “American Sniper” makes his directorial debut with “Thank You For Your Service” and the results of this film are totally satisfying.
Based on the novel by David Finkel of the same name the movie tells the true story of Sgt. Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) who returns from Iraq with his friend Solo (Beulah Kole). Both of them encounter with their families.
Everything is good with Adam when he returns with his wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) and his two daughters until he begins to suffer from PTSD, something that is very common from soldiers to suffer when they return from the war.
The same happens with Solo with his wife Alea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) who is expecting a child.
Now both soldiers and friends will have to seek help in order to get their lives in order before they suffer a serious breakdown and can ultimately cause the destruction of their families for good.
“Thank You For Your Service” it´s a movie that when I watched it I didn´t know what it was going to be about and that is one of the reasons why I did enjoy it the most.
Jason Hall not only directed a very good movie but wrote a fantastic screenplay that digs all the way into PTSD.
The movie did reminded me of “American Sniper” which tells the story of Chris Kyle and how he suffered from PTSD after returning with his family. Here I do think that Hall got more personal and the movie delivers at all levels.
Like he did with “Only The Brave”, Miles Teller gives a top of the notch performance here. He portrays Schumman in a very convincing way that we feel for him at all times, even when he begins to suffer from PTSD.
Hall wrote very good characters with so much depth and all levels of conflict that care about them.
This type of movies can have the tendency of being slow but this was not the case and I do believe that the length was totally accurate for the film.
I liked that Jason Hall just told the essential parts with “Thank You For Your Service” and his directing did payoff.
Not only he directed very good sequences that involved the war but the drama was very good and the case delivered.
I was surprised on seeing Amy Schumer in a serious role here, when normally we are used to see her in comedic roles. Here she did a very good job and she can also do serious roles.
The editing of the film was very good, the cinematography as well. I liked the way the contrasts were played in this film when Teller´s character is both in Iraq and with his family and the dark sides that were reveled.
The score by Thomas Newman again is outstanding and the way how the music cues were used worked at all times.
Miles Teller is without a doubt a talented actor and hopefully he can maintain this level.
“Thank You For Your Service” is one of the biggest surprises of this year and I highly recommend it.