Best movie of this year hands down!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

How sad is this?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This movie is average and nothing special that would draw in a crowd. If your a movie buff and enjoy watching movies for the art and story this is a good one to watch. Acting was very good and draws you into her story and her life. The star of the movie Linda Cardellini really brings out the character and her emotions really show on screen. As you follow her throughout her life after she returns from tour, you get drawn into her life and the troubles she faces upon that return. Facing her past responsibility seems hard for her and hard to get back into the mom and wife routine causing many more issues as she struggles to trust her husband and take care of her children while adjusting to get her life back to the way it was before she left.

RETURN (dir. Liza Johnson) Linda Cardellini delivers a mesmerizing performance as a woman who returns from a tour of duty in Iraq to find that her old life no longer fits. The film is deliberately and ominously paced as she discovers the truth about her prior existence. Her job is 'a waste of time' (it is, and it was), and her husband seems to have replaced her with an 'angst free' woman. It's not so much that Iraq had changed Kelli, but more that she now realizes that life can be so much more than what is offered in her rural, small town existence. Her friends and family members think that she might have seen devastating or particularly grisly scenes of carnage, yet her most unsettling memory seems to be witnessing a jet plane completely filled with rubber gloves. Her biggest and unstated realization is how shallow and pointless all of their lives really are. When things seem like they cannot get any worse, her husband initiates a custody battle over their two young daughters, and then she learns that she has been redeployed. The film is a stark and heartbreaking portrait of a woman who has been placed in a devastatingly untenable position. MUST SEE.

The film, which I found could be disturbing and powerful, stars Linda Cardellini and Michael Shannon.Cardellini is superb as a returning Army veteran where she worked in the supply chain but apparently in a war zone. Although it's never specified you would guess it's Afghanistan or Iraq.She's greeted at the airport by her husband(Shannon) and her two daughters. They return to their small town home in Ohio.It's quickly apparent that Cardellini is not the same woman that she was when she left for her one year tour of duty. Seemingly quite depressed she begins to display increasingly erratic and volatile behavior.One day, on a spur of the moment decision, she quits her long time warehouse job, which had been held for her while she served overseas. She is arrested for a DUI and her license is suspended. One day she gets her days confused and forgets to pick up her daughter, who is found by the police trying to walk home.All of this leads to severe marital discord, and her husband files and receives an emergency custody of their two daughters but she will be allowed to have unsupervised custody on the weekends.Cardellini starts to attend court mandated AA meetings but really doesn't open up there about her problems. As she files for a court hearing on custody she gets a redeployment notice from the Army.She then resorts to more desperate measures which I'll leave to the viewer to see.This is Cardellini's film and she doesn't disappoint with a riveting and nuanced performance. It can be difficult to watch at times and disturbing but I felt it was worth it.The film also shines a light on a major problem in this country. You read all the time how returning veterans suffer severe marital stress, turn to addictions, or even commit suicide. Yet it seems not enough turn to any available programs from the V.A. or other organizations. There must be a better way of immediately reaching out to returning vets and helping them cope with the realities of their lives.

"This is just a giant waste of time. I can't do it anymore." After Kelli (Cardellini) returns home from the war she finds it much harder to adjust then expected. Finding life mundane and pointless she begins to drift. When her husband Mike (Shannon) leaves with the kids she is forced to deal with her problem. There have been many, many movies made about problems returning soldiers experience when trying to adjust to day-to-day life. "Home Of The Brave" is one of the more recent great ones. Like that movie this one deals with how she feels that life is so mundane and boring it begins to affect her relationships with others. The main problem with this one is that it seems to take forever to go anywhere. The acting is great and the story is good but again it is very slow and sometimes hard to stay interested in. I would compare this to the recent "Take Shelter" movie in its pacing and feel. If you liked that movie you will probably like this one too. Overall, a very OK movie that could have been better. I give it a B-.