Duke (2012)

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It’s time for one of those really dramatic Hallmark titles. Typically when you turn on the channel you can expect to see a really wholesome Christmas type flick or if it’s from the hall of fame then it’s going to be a much more serious title. This is definitely one of those so get ready for the waterworks.

The movie starts with Terry returning home after a tough deployment in the army. He was badly injured which is why he’s back home and now he has a severe case of PTSD as well as some survivor’s guilt since he wants to get back out there and fast. Unfortunately the doctor says that he will not be cleared to go back and so he must stay as a civilian. He really doesn’t have a say in it and his only solace is in a stray dog that popped up. One day it all becomes too much for him though so he abandons his wife and kid as he and the dog drive off. Many years pass and their lives seem fine enough but his dog Duke gets super sick. Terry drops him off at a vet and dashes off again because he isn’t ready to handle more death. Thing is, the vet can heal him and so now they need to find Terry.

As you can tell there is a whole lot of dashing going on around here. Now Terry is dealing with a lot so you don’t want to be too harsh to the guy but he definitely did cause a lot of trouble for himself here. Ditching the family was really bad, especially when we find out that his wife died shortly afterwards from cancer. So his daughter was really on her own trying to pick up the pieces. Fortunately things went well for her but that was a tougher situation than it needed to be and Terry has to take direct responsibility there.

Then we have the second time where his dog was dying and Terry couldn’t be there for the experience. Yes, it’s tough but that’s the job. When you have a pet you gotta be there until the end and so I couldn’t really cut him any slack there. He made too many mistakes throughout the film but at least he’s in a better headspace now. Terry has finally gotten past his issues, but it was really quite the ride to that point.

It’s very fortunate that he had such a solid circle of friends around him. If they all weren’t so supportive then it would have been far worse for him. He wouldn’t have known what was going on with Duke without his friend bringing up the subject. The film has a fairly small cast the whole time since this is definitely more of a personal story. His daughter gets a small role but she’s mainly just trying to find Terry and set things right. She definitely gets a lot of credit for sticking her neck out in order to push things forward. Considering the circumstances, I don’t think anyone would have blamed her for not wanting to find Terry at this point and just continuing on her way.

The film is about his trauma after all but she likely has a lot of her own. She may blame herself for not noticing sooner which caused Terry to storm out during the party, playing a lot of what ifs in her head, etc. All of that can really add up as well. Meanwhile the vet definitely looked real good here. Technically speaking it’s not like they had to take Duke in. It was against their rules and everything but they still went ahead and did the right thing as needed. Definitely a good way to lead by example here. They fulfilled their duties as doctors and treated the injured animal in front of them.

I would note that Duke himself does play a bit of a back seat to Terry as the lead though. This is definitely not a case of dual main characters as Terry is clearly the star. Still, we can definitely say that Duke is the MVP here as without him Terry would have been in real trouble. He gave his owner someone to think about at all times and was a good distraction on the whole. Duke stayed strong and didn’t falter no matter how tough things got.

The film is fairly short and the plot is very direct so there isn’t a lot more to get into with this one. Mix that in with the fact that it’s got a small cast and that’s about it for the movie. You should know based on the premise if you’ll enjoy it or not because this isn’t a movie about plot twists or anything like that. It’s a very direct film after all. The writing is solid and the movie never drags on so you can put those feathers in its cap as well.

Overall, Duke is definitely an emotional film that definitely focuses on a lot of the sadder aspects of dealing with PTSD. It’s really about nonstop trauma and getting past it. As a result there aren’t very many happy scenes in the film. The whole thing comes across more as a very exhausting adventure about a veteran having to find his road to recovery. It’s a good message and definitely something that is good to keep in mind as it’s never too late to get better. Of course a good message doesn’t always translate into being a fun film and that’s exactly what’s going on here. You definitely have to be ready for a pretty intense movie here.

Life is Beautiful Review

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It’s time for a film that has a really big tonal shift midway through. The initial half is a rather silly romantic comedy and then the second half brings a lot of nonstop tragedy. It’s definitely a bold approach as very few films can pull off such a stark change. Well this one puts in a pretty big swing so we’ll see how things turned out.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Guido who is a chronic liar who likes to have a lot of fun. He rolls constantly and falls in love with a lady named Dora. Dora already has a fiancé which would make things tricky for most leads but Guido doesn’t care. He figures that stealing her away will be easy enough and continues flirting nonstop in order to get her attention. Eventually she does decide to go with him and they have a kid. Unfortunately the Nazis invade and split them up. Guido has to keep his son safe but also find a way back to his wife. Can he pull this off or are they all already as good as dead?

Now even once the film changes genres, it is safe to say that it still keeps a lot of the chaotic energy that it had before. The movie will still allow Guido to pull off pranks and tricks the likes of which are just hard to picture. For example he ends up intentionally mistranslating everything the German commander was saying and nobody noticed. Then at one point he uses the loud speaker to declare his love for his wife and to let her know he and their kid were okay. Guido was always a man who was good with his words but this is definitely taken to the extreme here.

Throughout the film he does succeed in tricking his kid Giosue into thinking that this is all some kind of training camp/tournament in order to win a tank. Of course even for a kid that’s a bit of a stretch so you either enjoy this craziness thrown in to keep the film from getting too grim dark or you quickly believe that it is going too far and it weakens the film for you. As someone who enjoys some levity, I’d say it works well enough for me although the actual film is still dark enough where it’s not really my cup of tea.

Additionally while the first half is showing how determined Guido is and how he never gives up, I do think it’s a bit dicey on how he steals Dora away from the fiancé. Yeah he didn’t seem like the greatest guy but they liked each other enough to get to that stage. While not as bad as going after someone who is absolutely taken like in marriage, this is close enough where it gets into very dubious territory. So that prevents me from being able to say I was 100% into the romance.

The film also used the humor to punctuate a particularly sad scene for the lead. At one point he recognizes one of the guys at the German camp which was a professor he used to get along with. The guy acts like he is getting ready to help Guido escape and there are quite a few scenes building up to this. However, when the time comes, it turns out that he just wanted help with a riddle. It’s a call back to the riddle solving days from earlier so it was all one big joke but this time Guido isn’t laughing because lives are on the line. It showed that he couldn’t rely on someone that he thought he could and so of course that didn’t go over very well.

Meanwhile the kid was okay but definitely makes a number of mistakes. He is very young so you can say that is to be expected to an extent but man did he put the lead through a lot. Speaking when he shouldn’t, causing attention to be brought to himself, etc. The last thing you want to do is be in the spotlight here. Meanwhile his wife did good at being hidden to the point where she basically vanishes for the whole second half. She kept her head down and waited for the right opportunity.

Ultimately the ending also doesn’t go for as happy a tone as you might expect. Some things go well and some do not, definitely a tough situation all around. Additionally for the supporting characters there is a lot of tragedy as well. Ultimately the silver lining is that the situation does have a resolution so at least the tough period is over. The amount of casualties was just astronomical in the process.

Overall, I wasn’t quite sure if I should format this as a review and if there were enough differences for a score or if it should be treated as a based on real events kind of story. Ultimately I figured there was probably enough here where I’d make it a review. At the end of the day this is definitely not my kind of film but I appreciate the attempt on a very different take on the situation here. In a way it probably works better than if it had been serious the whole time since that would have made the film an even darker watch. The first half just didn’t click well enough with me since I couldn’t root for the romance. If the heroine had been single the whole time then the whole thing would have flowed better but otherwise even the early flirting doesn’t make any sense. You shouldn’t even be entertaining any of that if you’re already dating. Then naturally the second half isn’t exactly an easy watch. The lead does his best to try and minimize how bad the situation is but even he can’t quite reduce that to 0. It’s pretty obvious to the rest of the characters that things are getting worse and worse as the climax approaches.

Overall 4/10