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It's been nine years since Kimberly Peirce's directorial debut Boys Don't Cry opened to widespread critical acclaim. In those nine years her name has been attached and detached at numerous times to various projects in Fincher-like fashion. However, since 1999 she's only stepped behind the camera once to direct an episode of The L Word, claiming that she was waiting for a worthy enough project to come along. She has apparently found that project in Stop Loss, an anti-war, pro-soldier film that proves to be a perfectly passable second effort. But therein lies the problem. After waiting nine years for a follow up to a film like Boys Don't Cry, shouldn't she deliver more than just passable?

Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) is returning home. His contract with the government is up and after surviving a bloody ambush in Iraq that took the lives and limbs of some of his soldiers and friends, he couldn't be happier to get back to his family in Brazos, Texas. Coming back with him are Sgt. Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), also at the end of his contract, and Pvt. Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), on leave. The three are childhood friends - Brandon and Steve being best friends - and return home to a heroes welcome complete with parades, medals, and congratulations from Senator Orton Worrell (Josef Sommer). However, the three quickly find their lives at home have been irreversibly effected by their experiences during war: Steve suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and hits his fiancée, Michelle (Abbie Cornish), while Tommy's marriage dissolves after he turns to alcohol to put the death of his best friend, Preacher (Terry Quay), behind him. Upon returning his gear, Brandon is stop lossed - an actual policy that allows the government to break contract and send him back for another tour of duty. Torn between his loathing to return and his loyalty to his friends, family, and country, Brandon goes AWOL with Michelle accompanying him across country in an attempt to plead his case to Senator Worrell.

Despite the explosive opening few minutes in the streets of Iraq, the film mostly attempts to stray from the psychological affect of battle and instead focuses on the strained personal relationships between those who have experienced war and those who have not. Peirce tries to depict how jarring the return home can be for those who have been gone for so long, whether they find they are either mentally unable (Tommy) or emotionally unwilling to return home (Steve).

Tensions arise once Brandon goes AWOL. Steve cannot control Tommy's drunken behavior like Brandon can and when Steve seeks him out to bring him home, Brandon's dissension clashes with Steve's militarism. Brandon also needs to face the fact that going AWOL makes him a fugitive and that fleeing across borders to escape pursuit means completely severing ties with his mother and father.

This interpersonal angle is a breath of fresh air in the mounting heap of anti-war films but some flaws in the film shoot down any hopes Peirce may have of Stop Loss standing out above the rest. Phillippe, while tolerable, isn't exceptional in the main lead and can't convincingly play the part once his character starts turning delusional. While he vehemently protests another tour of duty because of his horrific experiences, the script lacks sufficient evidence to effectively relate those horrors to us. As a result, Brandon comes across as overreacting in many parts. Steve and Tommy's stories were the most interesting in my opinion because they're the characters that are focused on so little in recent anti-war films. Instead of just following the disillusioned soldier (Brandon), Peirce brings us slices of originality with Steve, who actually wants to return for a second tour and Tommy, who will never feel at home anywhere again. Tatum and Levitt both give solid performances, but Levitt suffers from an underwritten character.

It first seemed a little ridiculous to me at first to team up a Kimberly Peirce and MTV Films. It makes more sense now though, seeing as the war is largely being fought by youth; the same youth MTV is geared towards. Let's admit though that the youth demographic isn't the most demanding when it comes to what they expect from the movies and this film, with enough substance to get you emotionally involved but not enough to be riveting, shouldn't fail to disappoint them. Peirce has made a good film but perhaps has become slightly rusty in her long wait, as she seems unable to invoke visceral emotions as she did with Boys Don't Cry despite handling an even more universally relevant topic.