¨Military fly
free.¨
Love and Honor
is yet another lame attempt at trying to make a chick flick appealing to men by
adding some action, which in this case happened to be the Vietnam War. The only
problem is that the action scenes only take place during the beginning of the
film and the rest of the story is a plain formulaic chick flick which happens
to star young good looking actors in order to appeal to its audience. Love and
Honor isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in hundreds of other rom-coms and
in everyday TV series. This film is Danny Mooney´s directorial debut after
having worked mostly as an actor in the industry. The script which is hard to
believe wasn’t adapted from a Nicholas Spark novel, was written by Jim
Burnstein and Garrett K. Schiff, but one has to assume that they were deeply
inspired by him when coming up with this story. One of the main issues I had
with the film (apart from the cheesy scripts and characters) was that it never
felt to me that we were in 1969. The production design team never managed to
transport us into that world, like other great films have done so (more
recently Argo). I can see why some people might enjoy this film, especially
girls, considering it is a chick flick and has some likeable young actors, but artistically
it has little value. There are plenty of other great independent rom-coms that
are worth checking out instead of this.
The story
takes place in 1969 as we follow a group of American soldiers in Vietnam trying
to survive the war. Mickey (Liam Hemsworth) is in charge of the radio
equipment, while Joiner (Austin Stowell) has a special talent for recognizing
explosive wires hidden throughout the place. He is the main reason why everyone
is still alive, but there is a motivation for his attention to detail. Joiner
is in love with Jane (Aimee Teegarden) and all he can think of is surviving
along with his friends in order to return home safely and marry the girl of his
dreams. Right before the soldiers are given a week off duty, Joiner gets a
letter from Jane claiming she wants to break up with him. In order to win her
back, Joiner decides to sneak back to Michigan during their week off. Mickey,
an uncompromising young soldier, decides to help Joiner and make sure he
returns without being caught. Thus the two soldiers arrive in Michigan and
catch up with Jane, who is calling herself Juniper now and involved in an
anti-war movement along with several other teens. Joiner wins her love back
when Mickey claims they have disserted the war in protest, and ends up falling
for one of Juniper´s friends, Candace (Teresa Palmer). The two men experience
the surreal counter culture of the Vietnam War back home, and at the same time
end up falling in love while the entire world has their eyes on men´s first
voyage to the moon.
Whenever you don’t
have a solid script it’s hard for the performances to be strong and credible.
Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer are very good looking actors and shared some
chemistry, but the entire premise was so cheesy that it was hard to believe their
story. Love and Honor ends up being yet another romantic melodrama that never
explores the true value of the two words in the title. Aimee Teegarden and
Austin Stowell served only as the back story for the main one, but they too
lacked chemistry. As much as the producers wanted to appeal to a male audience,
I think this film will only seduce young girls. It doesn’t do much for a male
audience and it is just another formulaic cliché film that does nothing to
break from the boundaries of the genre.
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