‘Megan Leavey’ is a heartfelt film about true heroes
Isn’t the summer time a great time for an emotional heartfelt true story of heroism, strength and bonding? Sadly, while many audiences are going to be disappointed by the big budget popcorn films, Megan Leavey will be ignored. Megan Leavey is a biopic set around a young female Marine and her bomb sniffing dog, named Rex.
Based on true events, Kate Mara (House of Cards, The Fantastic Four, Captive) stars as the titular character, a woman running from the tragedy in her past and beniality of everyday life. Megan signs up for the Marines to escape her life in New York and is quickly forced to deal with her lack of discipline. During her punishment on clean-up at the K9 unit, Megan feels she found her calling and fights to get a chance to with the bomb detecting canine squad.
Megan is paired with a particularly aggressive dog, Rex, and is given the chance to train him. The duo are partners and serve in Iraq during 2005 and 2006. They both prove their valor, but are injured by an IED.
The first half of the film centers on Megan’s journey, the training and service with Rex, while the latter half of the film deals with life after her injury, the injuries to Rex and a heated battle to adopt the dog who has been “unadoptable” due to his strength and power, possibly a danger to civilians.
While Mara isn’t any different than her other roles, here she brings Meagan to life. The rollercoaster ride from slacker to soldier to servant and back to slacker are perfectly done. Megan is searching for some higher purpose or meaning and must come to grip with the facts that may never happen.
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish) from a screenplay by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo and Tim Lovestedt, Megan Leavey is a safe film, venturing around the politics and opposition or support of the Iraq War and keeps the focus on the heroes. It is a great film, delivering passion and emotion while bringing awareness to this service unit.
Tom Felton (Harry Potter’s Malfoy, The Flash) steals every scene as a veteran dog handler and Common (the rapper turned actor) does a fine job as Gunnery Sergeant Massey, both as a mentor and as a hard-nosed marine.
Megan Leavey also stars Ramon Rodriguez, Edie Falco, Bradley Whitford and Will Patton.
There is very little screen time or story development for the rest of the cast: side stories about Megan’s deadbeat mom (Falco), her past and her love interest (Rodriguez) are just glossed over and are neither helpful or hurtful to the overall story.
Megan Leavey may only be in theaters for a short time, so if you miss it, catch in on the secondary market – 4 solid stars out of 5 stars.
Megan Leavey opens wide on June 9, 2017.
