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“Cheever’s got a bad back and a broken marriage and he’s suicidal, and TK’s got a wounded dick and he’s lying to his fiancée about seeing whores in Vegas,” confesses Colee (Rachel McAdams), embarrassing her two new-found friends in front of a congregation of Southern Baptists. The three wounded soldiers are on leave from the Army, but unlike William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Neil (The Illusionist) Burger’s contrived film won’t be winning any awards (well, possibly something for McAdams, who towers above trite material) or stirring the nation, since films about the unpopular war in Iraq have failed to draw audiences, a trend unlikely to end here. When a blackout at JFK suspends all flights, Cheever (Tim Robbins) rents a car to drive home to St. Louis; Colee and TK (Michael Peña) persuade him to take them along for what turns out to be a roller-coaster ride toward spurious patriotism, a road trip transporting unlucky viewers from hoo-rah to ho-hum. 115 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Suburbs
