Hall takes a similarly lackadaisical approach to the facts in Thank You for Your Service, inventing characters and scenes as he tries to create a story arc moviegoers will recognize.

These anguished performances go a long way, as does the film's peripheral vision of a banal, depressed America that threatens to forget its warriors.

The sober, nuanced, and deeply affecting Thank You For Your Service covers old ground with a fresh take and finds something new to say about it at the same time.

It becomes tedious to listen to and watch half-men bouncing around like pinballs, the filmmaker never allowing them to express a thought about the wider questions involved