| Director | Oren Moverman |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film, romance film, war film |
| Runtime | 113 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $6.5 million |
| Box office | $1.5 million |
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery is on leave from the Iraq War. He has received commendation for his heroic actions during the war, but is dealing with PTSD and has a chronic condition in his left eye as a result of being wounded in combat. His only emotional connection is his childhood sweetheart Kelly, whom he was originally intent on marrying before he left for Iraq, but she could not wait for him and has since become engaged to another man.
Before Will is to be discharged, he is dispatched as a casualty notification officer along with Captain Tony Stone as his mentor. Stone, a Gulf War veteran who saw no combat, is the more soldierly of the two and relays to Will the protocol for notifying next of kin of a tragedy, which includes no speaking to anyone who is not the next of kin, using informal language, hugging, physical contact, or fraternizing with the grief-stricken. On the job, their first report is to a family that results in the deceased's mother and pregnant fiancée breaking down, with the mother slapping Stone. The next visits are to a man named Dale Martin who angrily throws items and spits at Will; a woman who secretly married an enlisted man; and a Mexican man who is told through an interpreter about the death of his daughter. One woman named Olivia is in considerably less visible pain after learning of her husband's death, which Stone suspects is due to her having an affair.
In a bar, Will and Stone open up about their lives to each other. Will talks about Kelly rejecting him and tells Stone about his father's death due to drunk driving, along with tales of his estranged mother. At the mall, Will sees Olivia with her son buying clothes for her husband's funeral. He breaks up a fight between her and two Army recruiters attempting to enlist young people, before offering her a ride home. He fixes her car and becomes friendly with both her and her young son Matt. After hearing a voicemail from Kelly talking about her upcoming wedding, he punches a hole through his wall in a fit of rage. He arrives at Olivia's house and the two express affection for each other, but his attempts at physical intimacy are met with hesitancy as she tells him about how her husband mistreated her and her son.
When Will comforts a family in a local store using physical contact after telling them of their son's fate, Stone berates him for breaking the "no physical contact with the next of kin" rule. Will stands up to his rank by using his first name "Tony" before walking home by himself. They later reconcile and spend the next few days together at a lakeside cabin where Stone brings along two women; Stone engages in fornication with one of them and unsuccessfully tries to get Will to do the same. They end up at Kelly's wedding reception intoxicated and create a disturbance during the toasts. Later, they play-fight in a parking lot and wake up after having passed out. The pair return to Will's apartment, where Dale is standing outside. He apologizes to Will and Tony for physically targeting them during their notification. In his apartment, Will tells Tony about his experience with a friend who died while fighting in Iraq—an event that resulted in his injury to his left eye—and how he feels his bravery was meaningless as he could not do anything for him; he contemplated suicide soon after, but stopped himself when he saw the sunrise. Hearing this, Tony breaks down in tears.
The next day, Will meets Olivia as she's loading her belongings into a truck. She informs Will that she is moving with her son to Louisiana, and Will tells her he is considering staying in the U.S. Army. He asks Olivia to let him know their new address; she obliges and asks him to come with her into the house so he can write down his address in return.