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The Lucky Ones

This Neil Burger-directed effort (he co-wrote the script) gives us two young soldiers home from the war on 30-day leave who hook up with an older reservist who’s back for good in one of those sweet and providential meetings movies rely on.

Each is, conveniently, a wounded warrior, both physically and—wouldn’t you know it—spiritually. TK (Michael Peña) is a medic with the most, uh, evocative wound. He’s been hit by shrapnel in a particularly sensitive area and is at least temporarily unavailable for romantic encounters. Cheever (Tim Robbins) is on his way to his St. Louis home, where he discovers that his old life has dissolved while he was gone. Colee (Rachel McAdams) is a 19-year-old feisty loner, with a waif-like potential, who has lost her boyfriend in combat and is traveling to Las Vegas to introduce herself to his unsuspecting parents. All three wind up sharing a car on the way to that destination, as well as some crudely drawn, sentimentalized incidents, before they arrive there.

Much of this is delivered as humorously intended, especially TK’s infirmity, and The Lucky Ones lurches from one badly constructed scene to the next. As it goes on its clumsy way, it adds in annoying contrivance and fantastic coincidence.

Since it depends so heavily on sentiment and coarse humor, it comes as a bit of a surprise at the end that the filmmakers intended, eventually, to strike a resonantly serious note. It won’t wash, despite the best efforts of three very adroit and hardworking actors.

george sax


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