* * * 1/2 

Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Victor Rasuk, Timothy Olyphant. Written by Kimberly Peirce and Mark Richard. Directed by Kimberly Peirce. Rated R. 112 minutes. Paramount Pictures, MTV Films.

Stop-Loss, Kimberly Peirce’s moving anti-war polemic is a story of patriotism torn asunder, and not by any axis of evil. In a film that invites comparisons to Coming Home and last year’s In the Valley of Elah, Stop-Loss is a vital American film and necessary statement about courage both in combat and at home, and the distinctions between right and wrong, patriotism and disillusionment.

Peirce certainly knows the territory of outsiders on the fringes of society after her devastating 1999 debut Boys Don’t Cry, with a gender-bending beauty of a performance from Hilary Swank as a young woman, pretending to be a young man, in love with another young woman. It was a high wire act that netted an Oscar for Swank and announced Peirce’s arrival, from which she laid low for nearly nine years. And then her baby brother enlisted, striking fear in her heart and instilling an urgency to tell the true story of our soldiers, particularly one personal story, fictionalized here but revealing an unfortunate reality facing 81,000 soldiers to date.

In Stop-Loss, Peirce wastes no time plunging us into the hell of urban Iraqi warfare as Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) tries to extricate his platoon from a dangerous ambush that leaves three of his men dead. The survivors include hometown best buddies Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), a sniper in training, and unstable Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as well as severely injured Rico Rodrigeuz (Victor Rasuk).

Coming home to small-town Texas decorated with Purple Hearts and a ticker-tape parade, the heroes immediately experience signs of post traumatic stress disorder, unable to reconcile the extremities of their experiences with the rhythms of daily life. Steve buries himself in a hole to sleep. Tommy becomes increasingly violent. Girlfriends Michelle (Abbie Cornish) and Jeanie (Mamie Gummer) are at a loss.

When Brandon is notified by Lt. Miller (Timothy Olyphant) that he will be stop-lossed back to Iraq—a back-door draft that allows the government to involuntarily extend a soldier’s completed contract—he goes on an AWOL odyssey with Michelle in tow, pursuing a sympathetic senator (Josef Sommer) for clemency.

This act splinters the honor code between Brandon and Steve, a military man through and through and Michelle’s long-time boyfriend, though Peirce wisely sidesteps any romantic subplots. The two trek across America through seedy motels and secret meetings, visiting the family of a fallen soldier in one of the film’s best scenes, illustrating a tangle of patriotic loyalties and personal bitterness. And then in sobering, scene, the excellent Rasuk, star of 2003’s Raising Victor Vargas, disfigured and confined to a military hospital, discusses his family’s eligibility for Green Cards should he perish. It’s tough stuff.

Phillippe is a revelation in the role, an actor who has blossomed exponentially of late and here creates an indelible portrait of a good old boy and natural born leader turned fallen military loyalist, torn between the possibility of losing his life in another tour, or losing his family if he doesn’t go. As with Swank in Boys, Peirce guides him to deep, invested places here as Brandon exhausts his few viable options.

The supporting cast also impresses, with an emotional Tatum delivering in a late cemetery confrontation where he finally grasps the divide between himself and his former friend. Ditto a memorable Levitt, caught in downward spiral of aggression. Cornish, with her convincing Texas drawl and unfettered girl-next-door beauty, capably revealing the heart of a young woman figuring herself out while torn not quite between two men, but between their opposing ideals. This is one impressive young cast wrestling with some big questions and not an ounce of posturing or a moment of falseness touches the film.

Stop-Loss is an important movie and one that feels so right now, so tapped into the zeitgeist of what we feel as Americans about what we know is wrong, and what cannot be helped, which Peirce elegantly illustrates in a single shot of someone sitting down in the film’s final scene.

- Lee Shoquist