Customer Reviews

The Lucky Ones

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Amazon.com recapped the plot ably if less than enthusiastically, so I'll just jump to the praise. A truly fantastic movie! Intelligent, hilarious, touching, surprising, thoughtful, wonderfully performed, even suspensful. Superlatives do not do this movie justice because each one demands it's own exclamation when instead they are all woven together into the seemless and harmonic beauty that is this film's quiet grandeur. And don't forget it's very funny. So do yourself a great favor and see a movie with characters you will not want to leave, or leave each other. Thanks, and have a nice evening.

There are so many films like this, some people thrown together in a circumstance - this one coming home from the Iraq War to some bad surprises - and they become friends while traveling and find new meaning. While the actors are quite wonderful, something about it didn't quite ring true for me and there was nothing whatsoever original about it. There are borderline ridiculous many comedic scenes, but the tone is more serious than not. You can't have frolicsome tragedy. McAdams is far too beautiful to be a normal grunt and Robbins' personal crisis is too predictable and conventional. Pena, I thought, was the best: a tightly wound guy who slowly started to fall apart later on. I also liked the presence of the killed boyfriend, who is a very real and evolving character thru the film. Unfortunately, I was kind of waiting for it to end.

Recommended. There are some good parts in it, but it often just didn't work for me.

"The Lucky Ones" shows that a great movie can be made on a shoestring, without car explosions or special effects or any whizbangery.

All it takes is terrific acting, moving characters, great writing, and appropriate (often spectacular, sometimes grimy) scenery.

This one is the story of three soldiers, on leave from Iraq for wounds, who meet and share a ride--then share much more. They become emotionally close, even spiritually intimate, all the moreso because the civilian worlds they are returning to crumble around them like fading dreams.

Colee (Rachel McAdams) is the youngest, most innocent: wide-eyed, eager, happy, frank, unashamed, friendly, loving, open to anything. She is the forever-child--who learns, but never loses her innocent wonder, no matter how many shocks she endures.

She provides the catalyst for Cheever (Tim Robbins), the old timer who is looking forward to being DONE with the army and war, but whose world collapses and who, the others fear, has reached suicide; and for T.K. (Michael Pena), the young hotshot who has life all figured out, ready for his climb to the top--until nothing works.

It's Colee who points out the wonderful beauty of life they are passing through--which the other two almost miss, and who indicates how they can start over.

The ending is terribly sad and uplifting and scary and hopeless all at once.

There are many "war" movies, and they are pretty much all the same.

This is a "peace" movie, which shows how difficult and how rewarding peace can be--but also how fragile.

Though I think Tim Robbins is a fine actor, too often I think his politics sneak into his roles and though politically I pretty much agree with him, when I see a movie I want to escape the real world, usually anyway. Robbins was better than excellent as the wacko in the cellar in The War of the Worlds and he was superb in Mystic River, so he can and does act well above his politics.

But when Vesta brought this one home I knew I was going to get a preachy anti-Iraq war film, but I was wrong. This movie is about three very different kinds of people, two young people home on leave and an older reservist, played by Robbins, whose tour is over. Bad weather forces them to rent a car and the movie turns into a road trip.

And there is road trip humor here. And there are characters who are opposed to the war, as I would have expected. But what I didn't expect was to see the characters who support the war portrayed as decent, caring, human beings. Actually, if anything, the characters who one would think agree with Robbins' politics, come off as being close minded and a bit simple.

The movie, on the other hand, is anything but simple. It's a complex look at the soldiers who are fighting the war, their beliefs, what they face when they come home and why they're in the all volunteer Army in the first place. This is a good and fair movie, what's more it's entertaining.

PS. I'd be remise if I didn't mention the outstanding acting of Michael Pena as the soldier who was wounding in the privates and is on his way to Las Vegas to find some of those special kind of women they have there who might be able to get it working again. And rounding out this ensemble is Rachel McAdams, a girl returning the guitar of a fallen comrade to his parents. She's wacky, zany, quirky and charming all at the same time and she'll steal your heart. Mr. Robbins couldn't have found better people to be in a movie with.

The movie combines the well established road movie genre with the more recent 'returners from Iraq' genre. It is a comedy that makes light of personal tragedies and does it gracefully. I watched it in a 'combi pack' with 'Stop Loss', the much more serious film about soldiers who are forced to return to the front after their contracted term has expired.

In The Lucky Ones, Robbins is a sergeant who has completed his term and who looks forward to return to wife and teenage son. Pena and McAdams are on a 30 days home leave. The three get accidentally grouped together for a car trip from New York to Las Vegas and experience the difficulties of outsiders in an ambiguous situation. None of them has stable social circumstances, as even the Robbins character finds out to his shock. Their social backgrounds are quite divergent. They are variously feted as war heroes or attacked by the home crowd for being either too stupid to stay away from trouble or too luke warm about the war effort itself. The backseat drivers in middle American require heroic attitudes, not a statement that survival is a soldier's main objective.
This is the kind of movie that discusses problems without indoctrinating you.

While there are some disassociations with reality and home life for those stationed overseas in war, three returning wounded soldiers must objectively view their fortune when their home lives begin to dissolve around them. T.K. (Michael Pena), a leader returning to his fiancée in a precarious situation; Cheaver (Tim Robbins), an old veteran who is bidding adieu to his Army career but facing a home life that is potentially more volatile than war; and Colee (Rachel McAdams), a naïve but fresh-faced Private returning a loved one's heirloom to his family while dragging around her bum leg.

This wonderful tale of three soldiers sharing time on a cross-country road trip moves a bit slowly, but the realism, character development, and impeccable acting helps the pacing move along a bit. Friendship among the three appears to be real, and their bond forms quickly as they learn about one another's life and troubles. Charming chemistry is tough to come by; yet the camaraderie among these three returning soldiers feels genuine.

Much like Home of the Brave, there are some unfortunate clichés holding back the script. Not all soldiers sleep in their PTs, all soldiers coming home from war do not have PTSD, and despite what Hollywood would have us believe, they don't resort to violence as a first response to difficult situations when they have difficulties fitting into "normal" society. It's just a slanted view of troubled soldiers that gives the impression of people who are different from the rest of us, and I wish there were more movies that showed similarities instead of perceived differences. Our society has evolved quite a bit since the post-Vietnam days. I hate to say it, but I suspect this paragraph has something to do with Tim Robbins' politics. Thankfully, Robbins doesn't let his beliefs get in the way too much, and the majority of the film rightfully shows detractors of the military as close-minded idiots.

Despite the mixed politics and predictable ending, the majority of the movie is full of humor and humanity. Subtle inertia seems to drive the characters' decisions, creating a heart-warming rendering of their time together. Finding the positive side of one's misfortunes is what truly makes the beginnings of a hero; it's the ability to get back up after life has knocked you down. I recommend this film for those tired of the typical plot-less CGI-lovefest being regurgitated by contemporary Hollywood shills.

this is a very well done movie that shows a side of a soldier's life that is often not taken into consideration where you can see a sort of 'normality' in people who have experienced the absurdity of fighting a war that no one really knows why it ever started and how difficult it can be returning to everyday's routine and how, too often, the only escape is to go back to where their life seems to have a meaning. it is scary to think how many young americans have commited their life to such fate...

Tim Robbins and his supporting cast (McAdams and Pena) delivers touching story about three wounded soldiers temporarily back home in US after serving in Iraq. All three of them have been wounded while on active duty and are sent back home for 30 day rest. Upon arrival to NYC airport their flights are canceled due to prolonged power outage and the three decide to share a rental car ride on their cross country treck to their respective homes.

During their trip from east coast to the west they learn about each other's lives, how they were wounded and try to figure out their next move after 30 day leave is over. The unexpected realities of the civilian life sends them a curveball that they try to resolve. In spite of being relative strangers, all three are protective of each other in every possible sense. Many of their adventures are humorous, but the end of their stories is definitely suprising.

I absolutely loved this movie and I recommend it to everyone. It will give one a perspective on what makes people choose to become soldiers, what keeps them going and what keeps bringing them back to their duty. It also shows the other side of the story on how little civilians really understand about military experience and how at times, civilans can be disrespectful even if they mean well.

This movie captures alot of true feelings. As an Iraq and Afghanistan vet, who has been wounded, I can understand the feelings of the characters more than an outside viewer could. From the people who are thankful and express it, to the critical idiots who have no clue what they're talking about since they've never been over there, the "usual stereotypes" are covered. I full enjoyed this movie. It also really shows how coming home isn't just a perfect homecoming...problems do occur. Because of this I especially recommend this movie to FRIENDS AND FAMILY of those coming home.

This movie does have its classic road trip moments, but when all is said and done it's a lot deeper than most of the road trip movies I've seen. And it's hilarious, often in the most surprising and creative ways. Colee, T.K. and Cheever are three soldiers coming home on leave, with not only very different backgrounds but very different goals. They travel together for convenience at first, but soon form a close attachment as they experience twists and turns on their journey that turn their expectations upside down.

What's great about this movie is that although it could have been overly political, it isn't. It's not about the war in Iraq, it's about how the war has changed the personal lives of these individual soldiers. They encounter Americans that either deeply respect them or scorn them, and seeing things from their perspective, you see that though the scorn hurts, it is not because they approve of the war, but because the effect of the war on them is more of a personal issue rather than a political issue. They have lived it, and whether other people support the war or not, they have just tried to survive it. They are thinking more of how to pick up the pieces in their lives on their leave, and deal with the personal damage that any war can inflict on a soldier's life.

The actors are all excellent and well-cast. Tim Robbins is believable as a humble man who just wants to do right by his family. Michael Pena is perfect as a proud, sometimes cocky young man who faces insecurity (for a pretty funny reason, although you definitely feel for him). But Rachel McAdams in particular really shines in this movie. I think this is probably the most complex role she's ever had, and she does a great job playing Colee, a spunky girl who provides a lot of comic relief on the trip, but at the same time is struggling with extreme loneliness.

At its core, this movie is about three people who find companionship and help each other work through life-changing problems. It's touching and convincing at the same time, and I think it could appeal to anyone. All in all, a great film.