When National Guard soldier Samantha Harrison (McKee) returns to her hometown after a tour in Iraq, which has left her with a pending "Friendly Fire" charge, she finds "Normal" life is harder than serving in a war-zone. Graydon (Rozon) is the sole survivor of the team Samantha supposedly gunned down and he's looking for both justice and revenge. Unable to remember the night in question, Samantha has to rely on the testimonies of her squad; Billy (Koensgen), Bobby (Thebaud), and Jimmy (Lund)... However, after both Billy and Bobby take their own lives it becomes evident to Samantha there's something darker going on and she sets out to solve the mystery.
This is a very well thought out mystery with strong believable characters that are portrayed respectfully by the actors and actresses. McKee makes a good lead role and is so subtle in her portrayal, never going overboard on the emotional side, to make Samantha very believable. I could relate to her outburst of anxiety when she tries to seek law advice. She just cannot fill in the forms. You can see all the raw emotion on her face. Then after she takes flight, back in her car, you can see the relief flood over her along with the sadness and anger at not having been able to complete a simple task. This is pretty much spot on, as a sufferer of depression and anxiety, I can relate. Lund too is great in his portrayal. His character also has as many different flaws that he brings across to the audience in a believable way. The only thing I would have liked would have been a little more structure and drive to Rozon's character, Graydon. This could have been used to create a little more unease and suspense, especially revolving around the inevitable twist. This, however, could have been down to writing or direction, rather than acting. I must also pay respect too to Thebaud's character, Bobby, who injects the idea of a conspiracy theory into the storyline. He does this so well, you can see that he's worried about his and his families life. There are no small parts in this film.
The story, on the whole, is good and flows well. It does have a few slight flaws. If you're a fan of mysteries then you'll have solved this one pretty quickly as it's not a great twist. As I said before, it could have been made better. The other is the constant bombardment of "getting councilling". Don't get me wrong, I believe therapy can be a good thing but it's pushed too much within the run of the movie.
The direction is well above standard for a TV Movie and helps to keep the audience's attention, as well as creating atmosphere. Though I do believe there was a chance missed to make Graydon appear more ominous and driven. I particularly liked the use of colourisation. Muddy browns for a melancholy moment and greys for sad and depressing scenes. Even the flashbacks to the combat looked realistic, even though they weren't on a large scale, which I think actually helped their power.
If you like a war drama with an interweaving mystery to solve this is the film to watch. I really enjoyed the film and would be happy to watch it again at some time...
