Four soldiers return from the Middle East to discover that they can't make the adjustment to fat, peaceful civilian life as easily as they thought they would.

One of my favorite George Carlin routines -- in an intellectually-funny-and-true way -- is how we take strong, simple words, and substitute long, soft phrases that mean very little. The example he used was how the World War One phrase "shell shock", which is simple, graphic, and clear, became the longer and softer "combat fatigue" in the Second World War, and finally "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder", which is so bloodless and vague it can be used to apply to what happens after any unhappy event. And so we lose the ability to identify and deal with shell shock. When the aftermath of days of constant war is described in the same way as a bruise on the arm, you can treat neither the readjustment to peace, nor a bruise.

That's what this movie is about. Four veterans are left to struggle on their own mid loving family who have no idea what's going on: Samuel J. Jackson, Jessica Biel, Brian Presley, and Curtis Jackson. They all give good performances.

After getting notice that they're soon going home, an American unit gets ambushed in Iraq. Will Marsh (Samuel L. Jackson) leads the drivers. Single mom Vanessa Price (Jessica Biel) survives a blast but loses her hand. Tommy Yates (Brian Presley) holds his dying best friend Owens in his arms. Jamal Aiken (50 Cent) gets hurts tripping over some bricks. They return to Spokane. Surgeon Marsh is dealing PTSD and his anti-war son Billy. Yates loses his job. Price deals with her hand and angry Aiken is haunted by killing a civilian.

The opening action scenes contain both the good and the bad of this movie. It does some compelling action. It's got good intensity. Then this ends in one of the most old-fashion melodramatic overwrought-music cry-holding-dying-buddy scene possible. That is the pull-push of this movie. It is sincere in its portrayal of the home front but it is also very on-the-nose. It's got good intentions. Everybody is acting well. It does need to pull back the melodrama.

A war-worn National Guard unit is all but ready to leave Iraq; then one last assignment...a mercy mission to take food and medical supplies to a small town, where things go terribly wrong. A chaotic firefight leaves dead and wounded. The unit returns to Spokane and the soldiers find themselves fighting personal demons as well as a hard time adjusting to home. Dr. Will Marsh(Samuel L. Jackson) saved his share of lives in Iraq, but back home he returns to his doctor duties and his memories cause him to slide deeper into alcoholism. The always confident Vanessa Price(Jessica Biel),returns to depression caused by going back to her coaching position with use of only one hand. Tommy Yates(Brian Presley)returns finding his boss didn't keep his job open at the gun shop and ends up selling tickets at the movie theater. Jamal Aiken(Curtis(50 Cent)Jackson)returns home to a girlfriend that just doesn't feel the same about him sending his life into chaos. Both heartache and heroism emerge from an indifferent homecoming. Also in the cast: Sam Jones III, Christina Ricci and Joyce M. Cameron.