Stop-Loss

Showing a depth and maturity
unthinkable during his early days as a pretty-boy male starlet, Ryan Phillippe
stars as a skilled soldier who returns home from a particularly hellacious tour
in Iraq to find that he's been "stop-lossed," a policy that allows the military
to extend soldiers' contracts involuntarily. At first, Phillippe seems
convinced that he'll be able to pull some strings with a sympathetic
congressman, but he gradually comes to realize that his only two real options
are becoming an AWOL outlaw, or returning for active duty.

As in her superlative debut feature Boys
Don't Cry, Peirce
(working from a screenplay she co-wrote with Mark Richard) explores politically
incendiary subject matter with empathy, sensitivity, and a particularly sharp
sense of place, in this case, a lovingly depicted Texas. Stop-Loss is a human story first and foremost,
and Peirce and her stellar young cast ensure that the message never gets in the
way of the storytelling. It remains to be seen whether Stop Loss will be any better received than the
less accomplished but equally well-intentioned Iraq films that came before it, but
like her affectionately drawn hero, Pierce seems intent on facing her fate with
dignity and grace.