BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK – Review

Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) saluting during the national anthem in TriStar Pictures’ BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK. Photo credit: Mary Cybulski. © 2016 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Ang Lee is a brilliant director but he seems to being aiming more at recapturing the technical innovation magic of his film PI than making a good film, in his latest BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK, with less successful results. BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK focuses on a decorated Iraq War soldier and his squad in 2004, who are back in the U.S. making a good will tour, which includes a part for them in the Thanksgiving Day football game’s halftime show. But the real point of this film seems to be its 3D photography and an amazingly high frame rate. However, the film’s technical wizardry will only be seen by audiences in New York and Los Angeles, not in the Midwest. Seen without the gimmicks, BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK does not measure up to the director’s previous work.

Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) is a young soldier decorated for bravery, after his heroic efforts to rescue one of his squad during battle were accidentally caught on tape. The 19-year-old hero and his fellow soldiers in Bravo squad are being squired around in luxury, there is talk of a movie deal, and they are clearly riding the emotional high of being the heroes of the moment, tapped to play a part in the Thanksgiving Day football game’s halftime extravaganza. The fact that Billy Lynn’s act was caught on camera makes it PR gold. The story takes place at a pivotal time for the Iraq War, with no weapons of mass destruction found and a presidential election looming, so the government is eager to show off these young soldiers. The men of Bravo squad are put up in a nice hotel and assigned a public relations handler, who seems to always be on his phone, trying to seal a movie deal. The guys are in high spirits, ready to swill champagne and kidding around mercilessly, often treating the civilians they encounter with a knowing disdain. Billy himself feels more conflicted about what happened, as his heroism failed to save his beloved commander, nicknamed Shroom (Vin Diesel). As the young soldiers are pampered and prepared for their halftime moment, we see flashbacks to the battle itself, retold from various points in time and camera angles but always Billy’s point-of-view.

The problem is not the subject matter but how the story is told. Billy Lynn’s tale is told is in such an unrealistic, even surreal fashion, that one expects to discover it is a dream at any moment. Few scenes are presented in a believable way, the pacing is glacial and some of it is so strange as to be simply puzzling.

Strangeness is a major sense in this film. Kristen Stewart plays a character that at first we think may be Billy’s girlfriend but then seems to be his sister. The awkwardness of her performance is part of the problem, but the director and script deserve some blame for this bit of weirdness. As the young soldiers are pampered and prepared for their halftime moment, we see a lot about the PR person angling for the movie, without figuring out exactly who he works for – the soldiers? the military? While the hotel and limo are very organized, the soldiers’ role in the halftime show almost seems improvised. There is no rehearsal and they are given only vague instructions just before going on stage before the crowd. It is completely unconvincing that the highly-produced, carefully choreographed Thanksgiving Day football game halftime event would be run in such as haphazard manner, making it seem more fantasy that reality. An instant romance with a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader likewise seems like a dream rather than reality. There are other instances throughout the film.

The film also seems too much like Clint Eastwood’s FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, in which a traumatized soldier is exploited for a patriotic public relations stunt. Is Ang Lee’s film derivative or is the similarity a deliberate reference to the earlier film? The most realistic scenes in the movie are of the remembered battle but it is not clear if that is a deliberate choice on Ang Lee’s part.

There are a number of political or social issues that the film could have addressed, about young men carrying the heavy burden in this war of choice and growing concerns about soldiers sent for multiple combat tours, a new policy not used in previous wars. But those topics are hardly touched, rather surprising from the director of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Further, one often has the nagging sense something is missing. It is a hallmark of a film built around visual techniques most audiences do not get to see, and it leaves an odd hole in the film.

The real point of the film seems to be its technical innovations, largely unseen by audiences in most locations. The film uses an extremely high frame rate, an astonishing 120 frames per second to the usual 24 fps, which renders the images hyper real. Combined with being shot in 3D and high definition, the film must be a marvel to see, which might distract from shortcomings in its plot and characters for the few audiences that see it that way. The focus on the technical seems to reduce it to a gimmick film.

Newcomer Joe Alwyn does well as Billy, a sweet innocent haunted by the death of his commander and mentor, a Buddhist who introduced the young small-town Texan to a new world of ideas and possibilities. Vin Diesel is good as Shroom, with a nice touch of dry humor with his fatherly guidance. The chief master of veiled sarcasm is Dime (a marvelous Garrett Hedlund), who gets many of the best lines and whose performance is one of the rare highlights of the film. Another is Tim Blake Nelson, in a single scene as a clueless and insensitive Texas businessman in the natural gas drilling business. The other members of Bravo squad hardly are given enough material to get beyond familiar war movie stereotypes.

In the end, what is one to make of BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK? Is there a missing scene at the end in which Billy wakes up, or a similar movie trick?

Ang Lee is a brilliant director but this puzzling, flawed film is not his best. For those who see it in LA or NY with all the technical bells and whistles intact, it maybe worth with the ticket price. But for those of us in fly-over country who will not see the whole package, BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK remains an unsatisfying, incomplete gimmick film, and a missed opportunity to be something more substantial.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars