MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

Megan Leavey

1/18/2018

3 Comments

 

D+
​1.33

The true-life story of a Marine and her bomb-sniffing war dog.

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Starring Kate Mara
Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Megan Leavey is an example of the biopic that’s more interested with hitting plot points than finding the real person onscreen.  If a subject had a life notable enough to get a film made about them, then those plot points should be interesting in and of themselves, as is the case in this story.  There are givens in Megan Leavey, specifically that an intense bonding between a dog and its owner are going to be affecting.  However in relying too much on cinematic reportage (this happened, then this happened), the characters in Megan Leavey feel like talking heads in a documentary, providing some background and a sense of stakes without ever drawing the viewer in.  This is a bare-bones film, carried along by the raw power of the events behind it.  Cowperthwaite gets the big moments right while skimping on any depth or nuance in the smaller ones.

Megan Leavey is a series of concentric circles around its protagonist, with each expanding circle getting thinner and thinner.  The relationship between the titular Marine, played by Kate Mara, and her bomb-sniffing canine companion obviously anchors the film, because that’s the reason it exists.  While I wish the film had spent more time on specifically how Megan convinces this surly and violent animal to bond with her, Mara does convey the depth of her love/obsession for Rex.  Surrounding that is a series of relationships that lifelessly sit onscreen, empowered only by the strength of the actors involved.  Megan’s estranged parents, played by Edie Falco and Bradley Whitford, are able to create the most recognizable characters, probably because they’re both skilled actors.  Common gets some stoic conviction out of his stock sergeant character.  As her mentor, Tom Felton’s Sergeant Dean is sliding down the scale, where her comrade/lover Corporal Morales (Ramon Rodriguez) is hanging out.  Further concentric circles pay lip service to Megan’s girlfriends and the soldiers she serves with.  

It’s a reasonable choice to backseat Megan’s professional life in favor of her familial one, but Cowperthwaite and writers Annie Mumolo, Pamela Gray, and Tim Lovestedt are satisfied with only scratching the surface.  With their abilities, Whitford and Falco are able to snow the viewer into thinking there’s more to their relationships with Megan than there is.  Whitford gives the dad a sadsack air of resignation and a quiet dignity and Falco gives the mom an overeager selfishness, but the parent-child relationship hasn’t progressed far beyond the surface dynamics of teen years.  Doing minimal work with the family only serves to underline how much less is done with the military.  There’s no care given to any military character, none of which feel specific or even have a defining character trait.  PTSD is given one scene and then everything’s fine.  The difficulty of insurgent warfare, where the pure and earnest curiosity of a little boy has to be viewed as a hostile threat, is skirted over, and Megan has no thoughts or conflicts about the war she’s in the middle of.  Big decisions like why she leaves the service when she does or even why she signed up in the first place are elided.  

If there’s little to no sense of camaraderie during boot camp and in Iraq, or interiority in general, there is some effective wartime filmmaking.  While her accuracy leaves something to be desired, Kathryn Bigelow remains the master of tense bomb discovery and defusal.  Cowperthwaite isn’t up to that stellar standard, but I was still impressed by what she captured onscreen.  The centerpiece shootout looks to this layman like a coherent and thrilling depiction of an actual firefight.  Most importantly, there’s a sense of geography to everything, such that it’s reasonably clear where fire is coming from and where the soldiers need to get to.  Put supporting characters that I’m invested in into that scene, and it grows in estimation.  It works as procedural filmmaking in that it makes a mysterious process a little more clear.

Despite its flaws and occasional successes, for human and dog stories, Megan Leavey achieves its goals.  I spent a fair chunk of this film with a lump in my throat, even knowing that I was being manipulated with low-bar, elemental story-telling.  Scenes of Megan and Rex being separated work, as does the big reunion at the end, as does the standard end credits of historical photographs backed up by Eddie Vedder.  Cowperthwaite even shows some admirable restraint by not showing Rex’s death or funeral, as real Megan had less than a year with real Rex before he died.  That kind of low-hanging fruit is going to be picked by most directors, and Cowperthwaite deserves points for skipping it.  Megan Leavey mildly chokes me up with its tale of interspecies companionship, but a film needs to work on my head as much, if not moreso, than on my heart.  C

3 Comments
Bryan
1/18/2018 07:40:38 am

The movie had a chance to hit one of many points including 1) A girl with a dead best friend 2) A girl with a traumatizing mother 3) Females in the military 4) Females in a hyper specific branch of the military 5) Person bonds with dog 6) Person goes to war 6) Person and dog face hard times 7) Person and dog face off against bureaucracy.

This movie wiffed on all of these things besides one decent war scene. I never even felt like she bonded with the dog and that’s a layup in a movie like this.

D

Reply
Cooker
1/18/2018 08:26:20 am

Hi, doggie. C+

Reply
Shane
1/24/2018 10:33:52 am

This movie doesn't deserve a haiku. Not even a limerick.

F

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    JUST SOME IDIOTS GIVING SURPRISINGLY AVERAGE MOVIE REVIEWS.

    Categories

    All
    2017 Catch Up Trio
    80s
    Action
    Adventure
    AI Trio
    Author - Blair
    Author - Bobby
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Chris
    Author - Cook
    Author - Drew
    Author - Joe
    Author - Jon
    Author - JR
    Author - Lane
    Author - Phil
    Author - Pierce
    Author - Sean
    Author - Shane
    Author - Tom
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Comedy
    Culture Clash Trio
    Denzel Trio
    Documentary
    Drama
    Foreign
    Historical
    Horror
    Internet Docs Trio
    Mediocrities
    Movie Trios
    Musical
    Podcast
    Romance
    Round 3.1
    Round 3.2
    Round 3.3
    Round 4.1
    Round 4.2
    Round 4.3
    Sci Fi
    Season 10
    Season 2
    Season 3
    Season 4
    Season 5
    Season 6
    Season 7
    Season 8
    Season 9
    Shorts
    Sports
    Thriller
    Western
    Women In Men's Worlds

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Click to set custom HTML