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After being a huge fan of Neil Burger's first big movie, The Illusionist, I was very intrigued in seeing his next film. With an interesting cast of Michael Pena, Rachel McAdams, and Tim Robbins, I was very interest in seeing how the chemistry of these three would be together. They were very good.We have the older vet, Fred Cheaver (Tim Robbins), who just wants to go home and enjoy his remaining years with his wife and son. T.K. Pool (Michael Pena) got wounded in his private area and is afraid he can't 'get it up' with his girl where the relationship is apparently based on sex. And then we have Colee Dunn. She's the outgoing outsider with a broken family but means well with attempting to bring a guitar to a family she doesn't know where her friend and their son was killed in combat. She expects to live with them.The chemistry between the main leads are very good (especially Rachel McAdams). They don't have a ego problem as you might see in most post war movies (see Stop-Loss). I believe Burger's biggest point was to demonstrate the bond the the army has on each other and how they would go to big lengths to make sure one another is OK and safe while of course testing one another with impossible questions. T.K. didn't like Colee's deceased friend Randy even though he never knew him. Randy robbed a casino according to Colee and T.K. felt that's what the military doesn't want. Soldiers escaping their problems. Fred would always be there to babysit the two if any issues between the two would get out of hand but the truth is, the three of them loved each other.This film has no comparison to the very special "The Illusionist" but that is a very good thing. Variety seems to be an issue for a good portion of new coming directors in this new century. Neil Burger relied on a tight script and painted characters with ridiculous recurrences and run ins that made you one again understand why it was called 'The Lucky Ones.' My favorite was when Fred went to see his wife, she nonchalantly asked for a divorce. Moments later his son came home and said he needed tens of thousands of dollars to get into Stanford. After Fred went back out with his friends to relieve some tension, he ran into an old friend that he worked with who explained that the company that Fred and him worked for was out of business obviously meaning that Fred had no job and really no way of giving money to his son at the time.Solid film and lots of problems bit it saved by very good chemistry and performances.
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