Upon returning to his hometown, Gabriel Drummer, a young smart and courageous soldier, who after his survival during the war in Afghanistan, struggles against finding his wife and son, as he is shocked by finding his country is completely destroyed.
The final sequence, when all is revealed, is overwrought, excruciatingly shrill, manipulative, and exploitative -- and hardly a surprise to anyone even halfway paying attention.
Mr. Montiel may have had honorable intentions in creating this movie. But what he made is neither a viable work of art nor an effective call to action. It's a sadistic and ghoulish spectacle.
LaBeouf ... ably carries "Man Down" on his shoulders. He has an easy, natural chemistry with Shotwell, and he's a reservoir of buried emotions in his scenes with Oldman.
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.
