Man Down

The traumatic experiences of a young US Marine are the focus of this drama that blends here-and-now naturalism with visions of a ravaged America in the grip of some apocalyptic future. Shia LaBeouf holds both these story elements together, as an honest, ordinary working-class youth who signs on for the service even though it means leaving his partner and son behind, and facing the dangers of a posting to Afghanistan. There's a key role, too, for a steely Gary Oldman as an army counsellor trying to assess LaBeouf's troubled state of mind in the wake of brutal combat experiences, these scenes in marked contrast to the images of a bearded, addled LaBeouf scouring a dystopian landscape for his little boy. In truth, director Dito Montiel's movie gambles everything on an ambitious plot device that doesn't quite come off, but LaBeouf's vulnerability offers an effective portrait of masculinity in crisis. Montiel makes a sincere statement about America's treatment of its young people, but it's just an ungainly and roundabout way of saying so.