This is clearly a film which divides audiences. I think it has virtues which are easily overlooked. It is actually rather a simple, restrained film with few pretensions. It characters are ordinary and recognisable and their struggles are easy to identify with and entirely comprehensible. Because it is so simple, it is easy to see it as clichéd, but I don't think it is. Ordinary people under stress usually do respond in fairly predictable ways and express themselves in fairly stereotypical language. The script acknowledges this, but still presents the characters with great sincerity.
I don't think it is a particularly political film, though is probably a little more pro- the war than we in Europe would generally like (this hasn't stopped some US critics treating it as anti-war propaganda!). But the point of the film is not whether the Iraq invasion is right or wrong, but to explore the experience of normal contemporary individuals in the aftermath of the shock and horror when they come home. Nothing very original, perhaps, but sensitively done. I felt a lot for all of them.
I don't think it is a particularly political film, though is probably a little more pro- the war than we in Europe would generally like (this hasn't stopped some US critics treating it as anti-war propaganda!). But the point of the film is not whether the Iraq invasion is right or wrong, but to explore the experience of normal contemporary individuals in the aftermath of the shock and horror when they come home. Nothing very original, perhaps, but sensitively done. I felt a lot for all of them.