For his first feature-length film, The Dry Land writer-director, Ryan Piers Williams, portrayed the unraveling affects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with equal measure of grit and grace. Ryan O'Nan plays James, a solider returning from the war in Iraq, with both restraint and credible volatility. Initially, the film appears to be checking off the returning warrior clichés: heartfelt airport terminal reunion, an awkward return to intimacy with the wife, reentry to a mundane job, and an alcohol fueled tussle with a smart-mouthed townie. But as James begins to wrestle with a critical missing part of his recollection of Iraq, the film makes a decidedly introspective turn toward the reality of PTSD.
This Sundance-nominee was able not only to capture a certain authenticity of the returning soldier, Williams also provides a parable of brokenness, self-destruction, and the isolation of the one whose wounds are hidden to his community. As James reaches out to his Army buddies in hopes to fill in the empty parts of his memory, he only finds more brokenness among them. Many who have never worn a uniform can relate to the elusive redemption we seek from others.
At my screening, there was some difference of reaction regarding the climatic final scene. Some were disappointed in the lack of Hollywood-style triumph. But as the rain poured down on the "dry land" of James' El Paso landscape, the viewer is not left without the hope of healing from trauma and despair.
This Sundance-nominee was able not only to capture a certain authenticity of the returning soldier, Williams also provides a parable of brokenness, self-destruction, and the isolation of the one whose wounds are hidden to his community. As James reaches out to his Army buddies in hopes to fill in the empty parts of his memory, he only finds more brokenness among them. Many who have never worn a uniform can relate to the elusive redemption we seek from others.
At my screening, there was some difference of reaction regarding the climatic final scene. Some were disappointed in the lack of Hollywood-style triumph. But as the rain poured down on the "dry land" of James' El Paso landscape, the viewer is not left without the hope of healing from trauma and despair.