Fort Bliss

Name: Fort Bliss
Genre: Drama, War
Released: September 19, 2014
Duration: 116 min
Rating: 68

2014

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	Your Score
6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Fort Bliss

Movie Details & Credits

Not Rated

Phase 4 Films | Release Date: September 19, 2014

Summary: A decorated Army medic and single mother (Michelle Monaghan) returns home from an extended tour in Afghanistan to discover that the bond with her five-year-old son has been shattered. In her absence, the boy has attached to his father (Ron Livingston) and his new girlfriend (Emmanuelle Chriqui). As she struggles to reclaim her son’sA decorated Army medic and single mother (Michelle Monaghan) returns home from an extended tour in Afghanistan to discover that the bond with her five-year-old son has been shattered. In her absence, the boy has attached to his father (Ron Livingston) and his new girlfriend (Emmanuelle Chriqui). As she struggles to reclaim her son’s affection and reintegrate into civilian life, she meets a mechanic (Manolo Cardona) with whom she becomes romantically involved. Just as her life begins to stabilize and the bond with her son shows signs of healing, she gets news of another deployment. She must now find a way to reconcile her duties as a mother and her obligations as a soldier.… Expand

Director: Claudia Myers

Genre(s): Drama, War

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 116 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Critic Reviews

Philadelphia Inquirer - Steven Rea

Oct 17, 2014

Monaghan is stronger still. This is a performance that deserves to be noticed. She is crushingly good. Read full review

Washington Post - Ann Hornaday

Sep 25, 2014

In Myers’s capable hands, and with a powerful, vanity-free performance by Monaghan, Fort Bliss joins “Coming Home” and “The Best Years of Our Lives” as a movie deeply in sync, not just with the military characters it depicts, but also with the civilian world that awaits them with such confoundingly mixed messages. Read full review

Slate - Dana Stevens

Sep 20, 2014

Maggie’s agonizing zero-sum struggle to balance a life of military service and a steady relationship with her son feels fresh, raw, and real — even if the conflict it enacts is as old as the transition between The Iliad and The Odyssey, between the horrors of the battlefield and the difficult journey home. Read full review

Village Voice - Michael Nordine

Sep 16, 2014

[Michelle Monaghan's] at her best as Army medic/staff sergeant Maggie Swann in writer-director Claudia Myers's Fort Bliss. Read full review

Christian Science Monitor - Peter Rainer

Sep 19, 2014

Myers, whose background is in documentaries involving Afghanistan and Iraq War vets, is good at capturing the revealing, offhand moments in this story, but Maggie’s conflicts about motherhood and the military needed a greater psychological scope than this film provides. Read full review

RogerEbert.com - Godfrey Cheshire

Sep 19, 2014

Although competently made, the film is such a run-of-the-mill military melodrama that it might have skipped its assuredly brief theatrical appearance and gone straight to VOD. Read full review

Slant Magazine - Carson Lund

Sep 18, 2014

The complicated psychological realities of army personnel require a tougher directorial treatment than the maudlin melodrama presented here. Read full review

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User Reviews

HillPeckDad

Sep 24, 2014

Highly recommended, particularly if you are a military family or have a daughter, sister, or loved one in the military. The issues raised in this film related to how our women active duty service people must navigate the balance between serving the nation and serving their families areHighly recommended, particularly if you are a military family or have a daughter, sister, or loved one in the military. The issues raised in this film related to how our women active duty service people must navigate the balance between serving the nation and serving their families are important ones, and often overlooked. A really well-made, well-acted independent feature. Michelle Monaghan is a revelation here, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised based on her performance in True Detective. Not a perfect movie, but way better than most. And certainly deserves a better marketing and distribution strategy than they have gotten.… Expand

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TheDRauch

Nov 2, 2014

Fort Bliss can't help but feel like another domestic-set military drama in an unfortunately lesser vein of 2009's fantastic The Messenger. The film's focus on PTSD and it's impact on someone's loved ones certainly does not pave new cinematic ground. Where the film does succeed is in it'sFort Bliss can't help but feel like another domestic-set military drama in an unfortunately lesser vein of 2009's fantastic The Messenger. The film's focus on PTSD and it's impact on someone's loved ones certainly does not pave new cinematic ground. Where the film does succeed is in it's subversive casting of the beautiful Michelle Monaghan in the role of a shell-shocked, yet successful medic coming back to her estranged son. It's a new point of view, that of a FEMALE soldier returning home to find her old life alienating. The film fails to bring forth any new point of view relating to the tortured duality of a soldier's life returning home with the desire to be back in the field (and vice-versa) that The Hurt Locker didn't depict so emphatically. There are some plot-lines of the film that are lackluster, others are more engaging. The story that gives the film is most potent emotional heft is the focus on Monaghan's relationship with her son. It is at times crushingly sad, while not being cloying. It is this direct **** emotionalism that gives Fort Bliss it's backbone. The performances are consistent enough, particularly Monaghan, as I stated earlier, as well as Manolo Cardona as her spanish love interest and an understated Ron Livingston in the role of her ex-husband. Dash Mihok's turn is somewhat melodramatic and his storyline proves to be the least interesting as well as the least authentic. For those who haven't yet seen other (and better) Iraq-war set household dramas will find this film inadvertently a little slight in comparison, to no fault of it's own. I am glad that more filmmakers are willing to touch on this important subject and big-name actors are willing to lend their talents to bring some attention to this often forgotten and important subject that hits closer to home than we may think.… Expand

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