Man Down

Well-meaning but misguided, this psychological suspense film is overblown and unsubtle. Shia LaBeouf reunites here with director Dito Montiel whose semi-autobiographical film, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, provided LaBeouf with his breakout role in 2006. Despite working effectively in several emotional registers, LaBeouf is swallowed almost whole by the impassioned and convoluted story (screenplay by Adam G. Simon and Montiel) surrounding his character.

LaBeouf again plays a U.S. soldier (following his work in 2014’s World War II film Fury), this time engaged in the Afghanistan conflict. Several storylines from his life unfold in a disjointed fashion, which serve the purpose of keeping us guessing what exactly is going on until the film’s trick ending is revealed. The initial storyline plays like a science-fiction film in which Gabriel Drummer (LaBeouf) and his best pal Devin Roberts (Courtney), in rough military garb, traverse a desolate and bombed-out urban landscape unsuccessfully searching for Gabriel’s son Johnathan (Shotwell) and wife Natalie (Mara). In other story strands, Gabriel remembers moments from his Marine Corps training at Camp Lejeune (and haven’t the movies by now had enough of these hackneyed scenes of sergeants barking out stamina-defying commands to raw recruits?), and the days spent with his wife and son before shipping out. It’s during the endearing sequences with his young son, that the Drummer men agree that “man down” would be their secret code words to signify “I love you.” Then there is the ongoing discussion Gabriel undergoes with a concerned military counselor (Oldman) about the “incident,” which the Marine recalls with grudging reluctance yet vivid detail. It’s enough to get a guy shipped back stateside with a diagnosis of PTSD.

The film intends to offer a look inside the deranged mind of a traumatized military veteran. A postscript presents a series of disturbing statistics about the number of recent war vets suffering from mental disturbances and homelessness, as well as those committing suicide (20 a day, according to the film, which was made more than a year ago). Yet viewers still piecing together Man Down’s surprise ending or bawling due to its excessively schmaltzy closing scenes may miss the afterword entirely. Forgotten or subject to overkill as they are here, veterans still get the shaft.