
The most casualties I am accounting here, I didn’t even in Iraq, says a serviceman during one of the group therapy sessions that are a part of My Dead Friend Zoe, the omnipresent Kyle Hausmann Stokes’ perspective on veterans’ issues with mental health. In addition to two decades of serious real life and difficult personal loss, the emotion for this focus is purely and squarely directed around the personal loss that caused the filmmaker to make the film deaths of friends during his five years III Corps service with the US Army infantry. To put it differently, the bulk of the film is concerned with evading the sorts of assistance that veterans require and this is more or less the message of the director.
It’s the reverse for US Army veteran Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) as she struggles to move past the deployment and death of Zoe (Natalie Morales), an Afghan warfighter beside her in combat. Consequently, a ghost of Zoe seems to follow Merit everywhere when she is serving mocktails and making amusing remarks that only she is supposed to hear or she and the audience who are witnessing the entire gory film.
This story of a ghost is a bit different. The film portrays Zoe as the visual representation of the trauma fostered in Merit her best friend refuses to let Merit be until she performs her duties of relief, yet she does not wish that to happen, which is a large part of why she is resistant to accepting anyone’s assistance. The director knows what she is going through. Most of his post military career has been to producing campaigns about the veteran within the community, which in turn shapes his first feature (no doubt the appearance of Travis Kelce as one of 14 executive producers was a noticeable factor, but no less important is the hundreds of less famous peoples whose donations funded this Legion M feature).
The drama highlights a social issue without appearing self-righteous it can be viewed as a social service. Don’t be concerned that it’s all a work of fiction it is a film that provokes various feelings, unpleasant laughter, and deserved tears on the way to the film’s purifying conclusion. Just understand that the film exists for purposes other than to be a form of entertainment. Such skepticism should not be used to explain the presence of such an agenda instead it should reinforce the purpose. Everyone involved here is out to emphasize that while going for military service is hazardous, coming back home is also fraught with risks. Unfortunately, people, like Merit, without the appropriate care, are in danger of inflicting injury to themselves.
The burden that her personality bears may not be understood by the civilians and this is especially the reason why Hausmann-Stokes made it a point to use veterans in as many of the roles as he could. Not leading ladies Martin-Green and Morales, nor Ed Harris who portrays Merit’s grandfather Clay as a Vietnam surviving veteran, but almost all the others who play a soldier were a soldier in real. This also applies to Morgan Freeman whose strong voice and affectionate nature make the role of Dr. Cole a respectful therapist working with groups of depressed Ex servicemen and women that Merit saw court very easy to play. After all, Merit is far from the first soldier that Dr. Cole has treated who has nightmares even when awake.
It can be pleasant, or even crassly dramatic, to say something about the emotional core of the entire movie and then not offer any further details regarding it. The latter, in this case, is the example of Morrison, Namedead’s approximate time of death. Here, Hausmann Stokes draws the line under the effect of shocks on Merit’s transition from the military to the peaceful life in Oregon by including stills of her complications joking with Zoe, hiding from snipers somewhere, pushing away unwelcome male soldiers, or trying to enjoy shattered headed iPod pop music (the words to Umbrella have never sounded more suitable.
As edited, these disruptions can be abrupt and clumsy, but this seems to be consistent with the nature of trauma. Memories of Zoe stick with Merit no matter how much she tries. Morales is so enthusiastic in her portrayal of Zoe that she at times steals the limelight. But there comes a point when she starts becoming an inconvenience, distracting Merit from her obligations and from developing a relationship with a well meaning but somewhat naïve stranger, played by Utkarsh Ambudkar.
Recently, she took a sabbatical from work due to an accident or so Dr. Cole believes. He understands her, but he is also firm. She will not have her papers signed until she complies. He is able to get in touch with her. For a better understanding, she goes MIA after taking group therapy and when her therapist calls her, he is quick to ask if things are okay. It’s a dangerous time. Simultaneously, there is also the issue of Merit’s grandfather. Her mother, Gloria Reuben is a corporate shark who does not have time for Clay who is beginning to have Alzheimer’s. Looking for a reason to not go for therapy, Merit goes to the lakeside cabin where Clay lives and tells him to supervise him.
Clay was the one who instigated the motivation to enlist in the first place to Merit. Coming from a different generation, his fight or flight response involves him toughening up, so speaking with him hardly helps her internal conflicts. The film makes it clear that there is a portion of society that Owes an apology to those veterans for how they were treated when it was their time to return. To elaborate, it seems as if we are more knowledgeable now, and rather than sitting idle, it is the time to take action, action on behalf of the soldiers who went off and did the “things no one wants to do. Merit’s case is different she must feel and, indeed, be able to speak not in order to feel better she has to speak for our benefit.
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