I really wanted to love, no.. I really wanted to like Stop-Loss. After all, it was Ryan Phillippe! My crush for him ever since Cruel Intentions has not dissipated. And Channing Tatum! To be honest, haven’t seen him in anything but Step Up but I had heard he made quite an impact in A Guide To Recognising Your Saints. Then.. ‘our’ Abbie Cornish. Who I’m afraid to say, might only be known as the ‘other woman’ who met Ryan whilst he was still married to one Ms. Witherspoon.. and the rest is history.

The term ‘Stop-Loss’ describes the involuntary extension of a soldier’s service to the army – beyond a normal term of service. No choice in the matter, no date of return – just an extension of service. This film starts in the thick of in, in Tikrit, Iraq where a young team of officers are filming the last couple of days before going back home for leave; where two soldiers SSGt Brandon King (Phillippe) and Sgt Steve Shriver (Tatum) in particular are finishing up, making plans, reuniting with family and trying to move on from wounds, and lost brothers.

And they’re going back home to Texas. Cue the Texan accents.. I can’t really comment on their authenticity but Ryan and his not-so-natural cowboy hats, and Southern twang just doesn’t flow for me, and Abbie’s accent or maybe her characterisation as Michelle, Steve’s fiance is just a little bland.

Upon return to their small Texan town, King gets stop-lossed. Bam. You’re going back to Iraq. He goes AWOL, and tears outta town. With Michelle no less (art imitating life?) who has kicked Steve out for hitting her and generally being distant upon his return. This is where the film loses its way. We feel sympathy for King, who would want to go back to war? Its a natural reaction. The biggest tease to send him back to his family with the promise of staying there but then give him a written order ‘from the President’ telling him he has to go back.

But where it goes off the rails is once the movie becomes a road trip in hopes that a Washington senator will be able to save him, Ryan Phillippe just cannot convey any of the tumultuous emotions that the character should be feeling or expressing. Plus, if we’re meant to believe that King & Shriver have been best friends since school, and have grown up together; that friendship just doesn’t show. There is no brotherly bond that shows at all; let alone guys that have gone through a war together.

What doesn’t help the situation is that in classic ‘MTV Movie’ style there are a lot of flash cuts to the boys in the barracks, and flashbacks to brothers getting wounded, bad sound effects with overly loud grenades and/or machine guns played over metal-esque music. It just doesn’t flow. What could have been a ‘younger brother’ version of Jarhead perhaps is just an under-developed attempt at trying, hoping to convey what happens when even the most patriotic Texans get sent back to war.

If only Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role as troubled soldier Tommy could have been fleshed out a bit more – if only the friendship between the soldiers was explored, if only there was a more consistent score or soundtrack.. it wouldn’t have been centred on the above image. But what Stop Loss became was ‘girl torn between two hot guys, both left traumatised in different ways from war’. It had moments of poignancy, just.. moments but it misses the mark.

And it may only be remembered for being that movie where Ryan & Abbie met.

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