The movie starts out poorly, with too many things happening at once
, so you don't get to know the characters before they go through their personal changes. One thing that saved this movie from being a total failure was Maguire's fantastic and disturbing portrayal of a soldier suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a performance that will send chills down your spine. The rest however, remains weak background fodder, and scenes with Portman and Gyllenhaal are particularly naff. As a war movie, it has nothing new to bring to the table, but it doesn't work as a romantic film either.