Mark Reviews Movies: THE YELLOW BIRDS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 14, 2018

The Yellow Birds doesn't have much to say about the Iraq War, except that it was traumatic for those involved in the fighting, or about posttraumatic stress disorder, except that it's as much a mystery for those with it as for those who only witness its effects. The second part of that description of the story—the part about PTSD—is a potentially fascinating concept to explore, but sure enough, David Lowery and R.F.I. Porto's screenplay takes it literally. The movie, based on Kevin Powers' novel, is a straightforward mystery about a missing soldier.

The story plays out on two timelines—one that tracks two soldiers' involvement in the war, briefly before and mostly during it, and another that follows the soldier who does return home, as he deals with knowledge about which only one other living man knows. The focus in the chronologically later scenes is entirely about what happened in the past, while the tone of the scenes in Iraq is mostly about anticipating whatever horror we know is inevitably going to arrive. Somewhere, beneath that mystery and between the movie's scenes of propping it up, there's a deeper story about these characters and what they are going or have gone through.

That's not the tale we get here. The story of Brandon Bartle (Alden Ehrenreich) is one of regret and remorse—to which we're not privy to the reason until the movie's climactic confession. The story of Brandon and his buddy/fellow soldier Daniel Murphy (Tye Sheridan) is scene after scene of violence, death, and anguish, as the young men's belief in some righteous or, at least, justifiable cause is repeatedly shattered by the horrific realities of combat. In other words, it's nothing new, but a story doesn't have to be unique to make an impact. The familiarity of this story, though, certainly doesn't help in combination with Lowery, Porto, and director Alexandre Moors' non-specific approach to the material.

Here, we start with Brandon and Daniel in Iraq, at a party in a large tent on base. Daniel wants to approach a woman—a medic in his unit—but is too timid to do or say anything. The party is interrupted by the sounds and vibrations of nearby explosions, and at this point, the two guys simply show signs of relief that the attacks weren't closer.

While in training before any of this unfolds, the two men meet. Their commanding officer Sergeant Sterling (Jack Huston) is impressed with Daniel's marksmanship and, anticipating that the kid might not be up to the tasks soon to be at hand, tells the 21-year-old Brandon that he needs to keep an eye on his 18-year-old comrade. The two are inseparable from there on out, and Brandon even meets Daniel's parents. His mother Maureen (Jennifer Aniston) is a doting woman, telling Brandon that he should let her know first if anything terrible should happen to her beloved son.

After the war and whatever event occurred that led to Daniel's disappearance, Brandon returns home to a confounded mother named Amy (Toni Collette). He won't talk to her about the war, and he definitely won't talk to Captain Anderson (Jason Patric), who's investigating Daniel's disappearance. He spends most of the day in bed in the midst of a heavy depression that's only interrupted by fits of anger.

The reason for his depression isn't quite a puzzle, because it all comes down to a single event. The screenplay repeatedly toys with the possibilities, as Daniel descends into his own depression while fighting in Iraq. He disappeared, we know for certain, but was it of his own accord, by force, or a cover-up for something sinister that he did or that was done to him?

These are the questions, and they are, perhaps, the only questions that matter to Lowery and Porto. They're never asked directly by any of the characters, but the entire structure of the story hints at and suggests a strew of potential reasons.

Lost in this is the potential of these characters, who mainly exist to bear witness to horrific sights and sink into misery. The performances are good, especially Sheridan's portrayal of Daniel's gradual descent into despair and Huston's on-the-verge-of-caricature performance as the men's commanding officer, who seems to have developed a psychological shield against what's happening around him. Ehrenreich is solid in the leading role, although his character makes such a vast leap between the scenes in combat and the scenes at home that his performance seems like just another piece of the mystery.

In the end, it's all about what happened to Daniel—not why it happened or how it affects the characters in any way more substantial than the fact that it happened. The Yellow Birds dismisses such concerns, in a move that only heightens how familiar and, ultimately, hollow this story is.

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