Taking Chance

Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik

Taking Chance, an elegiac chronicle of the final journey home for a 19-year-old Marine killed in Iraq, is one of the most eloquent and socially conscious films the premium cable channel has ever presented.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

A small, almost perfectly realized gem of a movie, Taking Chance is also precisely the kind of movie that TV should be making.

Wall Street JournalDorothy Rabinowitz

The film remains, to the end, exemplary in its focus on the journey home of the unbearably young Marine, Chance Phelps, and its effect on Col. Stroble, his escort--a portrayal that will, we can expect, earn a string of honors for Kevin Bacon, and they'll be well-deserved.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

It's the most singular film you're apt to see this year, and very likely the most moving.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

Concise and deeply moving, Taking Chance tells a true story that has been repeated often but rarely depicted.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A tearjerker in the best possible sense, HBO's Taking Chance tells a simple story with reverence and sensitivity.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

It is simple and honest, and any and all tears come from the story itself, not from the the spare telling of it.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

Bacon plays Strobl with a lovely stoicism that lends more emotional weight than anything the script could have him say about the tragedy of a fallen hero.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

Taking Chance is saved from patriotic sentimentality by its attention to detail and Bacon's performance.

Washington PostTom Shales

Taking Chance is both troubling and inspiring, a film in the spirit of "Saving Private Ryan" but on an artfully intimate scale--masterful in technique but with no self-referential showing off.

New York PostLinda Stasi

Bacon is good, as you'd expect, although the movie is almost done in mime with little dialogue....But, the reality is that this would have been a much-more fulfilling journey if we'd had more interaction between Strobe and the regular folks he meets along the way.

Entertainment WeeklyRob Moynihan

The film's portrayal of military ceremony is stirring, but Bacon's stiff performance distracts from the powerful moments of civilian respect for the fallen hero.

The New York TimesGinia Bellafante

The real Colonel Strobl’s journal is the source material for the film, and the fidelity to actual events, absent a dramatizing hand, results in a flatness that made me feel unpatriotic for feeling bored.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

The story's power is sufficient to overcome the occasional histrionic flourish. What it can't completely surmount is the rigid interpretation delivered by its star.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

Drawn from Strobl’s journal, the film is occasionally episodic, but that in itself makes a point: the only way to comprehend, or at least manage death under such circumstances is to go through the steps.

Slant MagazineBrian Holcomb

Instead of well-drawn characters or real human drama, we are presented with a military procedural on burial traditions. The film desperately wants the viewer to shed tears for its fallen hero without giving a single dramatic reason to do so.