Eye Candy #1 - "The Dry Land"

The Dry Land: Caught a recent screening of this in Dallas, and misleading N-F ad copy aside (Wilmer Valderrama, while in the film, is hardly the lead), this is a strong, contemporary look at post traumatic stress disorder in veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, delving into the impact not just on the soldiers themselves, but also their family and friends. James (Ryan O’Nan) has recently returned from Iraq where his unit’s Humvee was the target of an RPG. 2 of the 5 unit members were killed and 1 seriously wounded. James himself has no recollection of the events surrounding the ambush. He returns to west Texas to his family - his wife Sarah (America Ferrera), his hometown friends (Jason Ritter), his fellow soldiers (Valderrama) and ailing mother (Melissa Leo). After several violent episodes involving his wife, he takes a road trip to Walter Reed Hospital with Raymond (Valderrama) to visit the third survivor of their unit, Henry (played by Diego Klattenhoff), as James tries to take stock of his life and make sense of his past before it destroys his present. Sparse, apolitical, and claustrophic, this is the portrait of a man on the edge, with no one to catch him, and whose friends and family don‘t know where to begin to understand him. The first film from director Ryan Piers Williams, this picture is built upon years of research with real veterans and their spouses. The cast is uniformly superb, with exceptional turns by Leo, Valderrama, and Klattenhoff. And while the film’s story revolves around suffering and pain, its message is ultimately one of hope and worth watching. This film deserves a much broader audience. Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”