The Lucky Ones (film)
Encyclopedia
The Lucky Ones is a 2008 American dramedy film
with a road movie
plot directed by Neil Burger
. The screenplay by Burger and Dirk Wittenborn focuses on three United States Army
soldiers who find themselves drawn together by unforeseen circumstances.
. Colee plans to visit the family of her boyfriend, a soldier who was killed in action after saving her life, and T.K. wants to engage the services of a sex surrogate he hopes will cure the impotence he is experiencing as the result of a shrapnel injury before he reunites with his girlfriend.
Upon arrival at JFK
, the three strangers discover all outbound flights have been cancelled due to a lengthy blackout
that ended just prior to their arrival. Rather than face a potentially long wait before normal flight schedules resume, they rent a minivan and begin to drive westward.
Upon arrival in St. Louis, Cheaver is thrilled to learn his son Scott has been accepted at Stanford University
but stunned to learn his wife Pat wants a divorce. He decides to visit his brother in Salt Lake City but first drives Colee and T.K. to the airport so they can fly to Vegas. When they see how devastated Cheaver is, they fear his state of mind will put him at risk on the open road and decide to continue with him. As their journey progresses and they open themselves up to each other, the three gradually become closer and find themselves sharing unexpected adventures. At a revival meeting
conducted by Pastor Jerry Nolan, a member of the congregation invites them to a birthday party in his palatial home, where they must endure anti-war sentiments expressed by the man's adult children and Cheaver is seduced by a guest who expects him to participate in a threesome
with her and her husband Bob. Later, Colee and T.K. leave Cheaver at a campsite while they go in search of food, and while driving they are forced to flee an approaching tornado
and take shelter in a drainage ditch. As they cling closely to each other, T.K. discovers he might not need the sex surrogate after all.
Scott's scholarship will pay for only part of his tuition and he needs to pay the $20,000 balance immediately in order to secure his place at the university in the upcoming fall semester. Cheaver decides to bypass Salt Lake City and travel to Vegas to try his luck in the casinos. When Colee discovers that a guitar similar to the one she is returning to her boyfriend's parents recently sold at an online auction for $22,000, she is tempted to give it to Cheaver, but he encourages her to complete her mission.
Colee is welcomed warmly by her boyfriend's parents, Tom and Jeanie Klinger, but quickly discovers that not only nothing he had told her about himself and his past was true, but he had omitted some important details as well. Neither of the Klingers recognize the guitar, supposedly a family heirloom, and living with them are Shannon and the baby she had after a one-night stand with their son. The Klingers invite Colee to spend the remainder of her leave with them. Disillusioned, she declines, but she asks if she can keep the guitar, and they readily agree.
Colee, Cheaver, and T.K. are reunited at the local police station, where T.K. has been brought after confessing to a casino robbery Colee's boyfriend had claimed he committed before joining the army. T.K.'s plan to avoid returning to the Middle East
by being sentenced to a prison term backfires when he learns the crime was yet another fabrication. Colee insists Cheaver take the guitar but he tells her he already has the $20,000 he needs. His friends are stunned he won the money so quickly, but Cheaver confesses he received it as a bonus for rejoining the Army. They go their separate ways, but three weeks later meet again at the airport as they prepare to return to battle.
, where the Iraq War frequently was debated. He also drew inspiration from The Last Detail
and its seriocomic mood, episodic structure, and such plot details as an odd religious detour and a meeting with prostitutes. In A Look Inside The Lucky Ones, a bonus feature included in the film's DVD release, he explained he intentionally avoided mentioning Iraq because he wanted the audience to concentrate on the heart of the characters rather than focus on the specific war they were fighting. The film, which takes no position on the war, is the first Iraq War-related Hollywood project the Army has supported by providing personnel and technical help.
Much of the film was shot on location in Illinois
at sites including Alsips
, Arlington Heights
, Barrington
, Bolingbrook
, Chicago
, Edwardsville
, Naperville
, Niles
, O' Fallon
and Park Ridge
and Skokie
. Other locations included Chesterfield
and St. Louis in Missouri
, Denver and Grand Junction
in Colorado
, and Las Vegas.
After seeing a rough cut of the film in September 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment
executives considered rushing it into theaters in order to qualify for Academy Award consideration. But when the similarly war-themed films In the Valley of Elah
, Rendition
, and Lions for Lambs
opened and failed to generate much box office revenue, the studio and Neil Burger decided to schedule it for Spring 2008.
When the film's future remained in limbo, producer Rick Schwartz
acknowledged the difficulty in marketing a war-related film to an audience that recently had rejected three, although The Lucky Ones primarily is a road movie
, and its sole combat scene lasts only forty seconds. "What should we do with this one?," Schwartz wondered. "Do you do a trailer that’s more light and comedic that hides the fact that it’s really about three soldiers, or do you try to stay as true to the spirit of the film as possible?" Burger considered either trimming the already short combat scene or removing it completely "to somehow mitigate or minimize the problem, or the perceived problem," but ultimately decided, "To not have the more serious scenes to balance out the humor feels somehow disrespectful to these characters."
The film premiered at ShoWest
on March 10, 2008 and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival
before opening on 425 screens in the United States and Canada on September 26. It earned $183,088 on its opening weekend, ranking #33 at the box office. The film was pulled from theaters after only one week in release.
gives the film a score of 31% based on reviews from 69 critics, with top critics giving an average score of 38%, and reports a rating average of 5 out of 10. The site reported an overall consensus that, "The Lucky Ones features heartfelt performances, but is undone by the plot's overwrought parade of coincidence and contrivance."
Laura Kern of the New York Times noted the film "has little interest in making bold pro- or antiwar proclamations. With a smooth, light touch (though not without bumps and awkward moments) it focuses instead on the idea that the present and the people who factor into it are all we really have. Aside from the opening, the only combat scenes to be found here are strictly domestic, and, in terms of its lead characters, internal . . . Their journey is jampacked with misadventures and personal epiphanies, some touching, others laughably contrived . . . But because the lead actors work so well together, adding depth and levels of vulnerability to fairly underwritten roles, the emotional consequences of the sense of displacement these 'lucky' characters — lucky to be alive, lucky to have met one another — must deal with always ring true."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
observed, "What makes "The Lucky Ones" so gratifying to me is anything but gravitas; these three characters are simply likable, warm, sincere and often funny. The performances are so good, they carry the film right along . . . I believe audiences will be moved by the characters. I was."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
graded the film B- and noted, "It's all very facile — war's domestic fallout made into feel-good fodder — but The Lucky Ones isn't dull, and the actors do quite nicely, especially McAdams, who's feisty, gorgeous, and as mercurial as a mood ring."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
thought, "It's hard to find the genuine heartfelt moments . . . under the clutter of narrative contrivances and coincidences . . . The daily life-and-death crises these characters faced in Iraq are replaced on their trip by the less dire but still pressing matters facing them at home, the subtext being that Iraq represents a distraction from domestic matters, which consequently suffer from neglect. There are moments when the sought-after poignancy born of this dilemma is felt, but they are all too fleeting and dominated by exaggerated dramatics and broad comedy, especially as they relate to intimate matters. Tone overall is ill managed."
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post said the film "is drenched not just in contrivance but condescension, for its protagonists and the clueless civilians they encounter. Surely all those constituencies deserve better."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle
called it a "thoughtful portrait" but added, "As the film meanders, the powerful moments barely outnumber the ridiculous . . . When the movie works, it's a nice snapshot of a space and time, which is aided by Burger's decision to film on location (with at least 30 percent of the film taking place inside the minivan). But he makes several wrong turns, starting with the sound. The musical score features jaunty, lighthearted piano tinkling and strings that should have been destined for a Grey's Anatomy
spin-off, not material this serious. And the road noise coming from outside the minivan is a constant distraction. Although many of the developments feel novel and spontaneous . . . others challenge the audience to accept behavior and coincidences that often seem outlandish. Some of the scenes adopt the forced wackiness of an Arrested Development episode, and the final 15 minutes are particularly frustrating . . . All of the actors make the best of well-intentioned plot turns that often don't feel true. The Lucky Ones has plenty of heart and courage. If it only had a brain ..."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
rated the film 2½ out of four stars and commented, "So far, the box office has not been terribly kind to movies about the Iraq war or the soldiers who wage it. The Lucky Ones is not likely to alter that situation, although the solid threesome of actors at the film's core and the storyline set entirely on American soil may earn the film greater props from moviegoers than some of the previous films. In many ways, The Lucky Ones is a universal story about rudderless Americans, not just this particular pack of Army veterans. Yet, the story . . . contains too many coincidences and convergences to wholly ring true . . . Robbins is quietly effective as the elder of the bunch, while Peña shows us something of the growth of a cocky kid into sobering adulthood."
format with an English audio track and English and Spanish subtitles. The sole bonus feature is A Look Inside The Lucky Ones, which includes interviews with cast and crew members.
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
with a road movie
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...
plot directed by Neil Burger
Neil Burger
Neil Burger is an American film director who has filmed the pseudo-documentary, Interview with the Assassin , the period drama, The Illusionist, and the 2011 thriller Limitless.-Life and career:...
. The screenplay by Burger and Dirk Wittenborn focuses on three United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldiers who find themselves drawn together by unforeseen circumstances.
Plot
Having completed his latest tour of duty, which kept him overseas for nearly two years, middle-aged Sgt. Fred Cheaver has retired from military service and is returning home to his wife and son in suburban St. Louis. Pfc. Colee Dunn and Sgt. T.K. Poole each have a thirty-day leave, and both are headed to Las VegasLas Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. Colee plans to visit the family of her boyfriend, a soldier who was killed in action after saving her life, and T.K. wants to engage the services of a sex surrogate he hopes will cure the impotence he is experiencing as the result of a shrapnel injury before he reunites with his girlfriend.
Upon arrival at JFK
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
, the three strangers discover all outbound flights have been cancelled due to a lengthy blackout
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
that ended just prior to their arrival. Rather than face a potentially long wait before normal flight schedules resume, they rent a minivan and begin to drive westward.
Upon arrival in St. Louis, Cheaver is thrilled to learn his son Scott has been accepted at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
but stunned to learn his wife Pat wants a divorce. He decides to visit his brother in Salt Lake City but first drives Colee and T.K. to the airport so they can fly to Vegas. When they see how devastated Cheaver is, they fear his state of mind will put him at risk on the open road and decide to continue with him. As their journey progresses and they open themselves up to each other, the three gradually become closer and find themselves sharing unexpected adventures. At a revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
conducted by Pastor Jerry Nolan, a member of the congregation invites them to a birthday party in his palatial home, where they must endure anti-war sentiments expressed by the man's adult children and Cheaver is seduced by a guest who expects him to participate in a threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...
with her and her husband Bob. Later, Colee and T.K. leave Cheaver at a campsite while they go in search of food, and while driving they are forced to flee an approaching tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
and take shelter in a drainage ditch. As they cling closely to each other, T.K. discovers he might not need the sex surrogate after all.
Scott's scholarship will pay for only part of his tuition and he needs to pay the $20,000 balance immediately in order to secure his place at the university in the upcoming fall semester. Cheaver decides to bypass Salt Lake City and travel to Vegas to try his luck in the casinos. When Colee discovers that a guitar similar to the one she is returning to her boyfriend's parents recently sold at an online auction for $22,000, she is tempted to give it to Cheaver, but he encourages her to complete her mission.
Colee is welcomed warmly by her boyfriend's parents, Tom and Jeanie Klinger, but quickly discovers that not only nothing he had told her about himself and his past was true, but he had omitted some important details as well. Neither of the Klingers recognize the guitar, supposedly a family heirloom, and living with them are Shannon and the baby she had after a one-night stand with their son. The Klingers invite Colee to spend the remainder of her leave with them. Disillusioned, she declines, but she asks if she can keep the guitar, and they readily agree.
Colee, Cheaver, and T.K. are reunited at the local police station, where T.K. has been brought after confessing to a casino robbery Colee's boyfriend had claimed he committed before joining the army. T.K.'s plan to avoid returning to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
by being sentenced to a prison term backfires when he learns the crime was yet another fabrication. Colee insists Cheaver take the guitar but he tells her he already has the $20,000 he needs. His friends are stunned he won the money so quickly, but Cheaver confesses he received it as a bonus for rejoining the Army. They go their separate ways, but three weeks later meet again at the airport as they prepare to return to battle.
Cast
- Rachel McAdamsRachel McAdamsRachel Anne McAdams is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre program at York University, Toronto in 2001, she worked steadily as an actress until finding fame in 2004 with starring roles in teen comedy Mean Girls and romantic drama The Notebook...
as Colee Dunn - Tim RobbinsTim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as Fred Cheaver - Michael PeñaMichael PeñaMichael Anthony Peña is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his roles in the films Crash, World Trade Center, Observe and Report, 30 Minutes or Less and Tower Heist...
as T.K. Poole - Molly HaganMolly Hagan-Youth:Hagan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth and John Robert Hagan. She was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.-Career:She featured in the series Herman's Head which ran on Fox from 1991 to 1994...
as Pat Cheaver - Mark L. Young as Scott Cheaver
- Spencer GarrettSpencer GarrettSpencer Garrett is an American actor who has appeared in television programs, television films, films, and a few blockbuster productions like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Public Enemies, and Air Force One....
as Pastor Jerry Nolan - John Heard as Bob
- John Diehl as Tom Klinger
- Annie CorleyAnnie CorleyAnnie Corley is an American actress who has appeared in a wide variety of films and television shows since 1990. Her most notable role to date was playing Meryl Streep's daughter in the film The Bridges of Madison County....
as Jeanie Klinger - Katie Korby as Shannon
Production
Screenwriter/director Neil Burger said he decided to write his script after filming The Illusionist in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, where the Iraq War frequently was debated. He also drew inspiration from The Last Detail
The Last Detail
The Last Detail is a 1973 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby with a screenplay adapted by Robert Towne from a novel of the same name by Daryl Ponicsan. The film became known for its frequent use of profanity.-Plot:...
and its seriocomic mood, episodic structure, and such plot details as an odd religious detour and a meeting with prostitutes. In A Look Inside The Lucky Ones, a bonus feature included in the film's DVD release, he explained he intentionally avoided mentioning Iraq because he wanted the audience to concentrate on the heart of the characters rather than focus on the specific war they were fighting. The film, which takes no position on the war, is the first Iraq War-related Hollywood project the Army has supported by providing personnel and technical help.
Much of the film was shot on location in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
at sites including Alsips
Alsip, Illinois
Alsip is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,725 at the 2000 census. It is a suburb of Chicago.Alsip was settled in the 1830s by German and Dutch farmers. The village is named after Frank Alsip, the owner of a brickyard that opened there in 1885...
, Arlington Heights
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Arlington Heights is a village in Cook and Lake counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles northwest of the city's downtown. The population was 75,101 at the 2010 census....
, Barrington
Barrington, Illinois
Barrington is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois and Lake County, Illinois. The population was 10,327 at the 2010 census. Located approximately northwest of Chicago, the area features wetlands, forest preserves, parks and horse trails in a country-suburban setting...
, Bolingbrook
Bolingbrook, Illinois
Bolingbrook is a large village in Will and DuPage Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 US Census, the population is 73,366...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Edwardsville
Edwardsville, Illinois
Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 24,293. It is the county seat of Madison County and is the third oldest city in the State of Illinois. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, then Governor of the Illinois...
, Naperville
Naperville, Illinois
Naperville is a city in DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853. It is the fifth largest city in the state, behind Chicago,...
, Niles
Niles, Illinois
Niles is a village in Maine and Niles Townships, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The 2010 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 29,803.The current mayor of Niles is Robert M. Callero.-History:Niles was first settled in 1827....
, O' Fallon
O'Fallon, Illinois
O'Fallon is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and one of the fastest-growing communities in the Metropolitan St. Louis area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 28,281. The city is the third largest city in the Metro-East and Southern Illinois...
and Park Ridge
Park Ridge, Illinois
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 37,775 people, 14,219 households, and 10,465 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,374.6 people per square mile . There were 14,646 housing units at an average density of 2,083.8 per square mile...
and Skokie
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
. Other locations included Chesterfield
Chesterfield, Missouri
Chesterfield is a second-ring western suburb of St. Louis and is the largest city in west St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2010 census the population is 47,484. Chesterfield also celebrated its 20th birthday in 2008.- Geography :...
and St. Louis in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Denver and Grand Junction
Grand Junction
Grand Junction is the name of several places:United States*Grand Junction, Colorado*Grand Junction, Iowa*Grand Junction, Michigan*Grand Junction, Tennessee*The Grand Junction Railroad in the Boston, Massachusetts areaUnited Kingdom...
in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and Las Vegas.
After seeing a rough cut of the film in September 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
executives considered rushing it into theaters in order to qualify for Academy Award consideration. But when the similarly war-themed films In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah is a 2007 film written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon. The film’s title refers to the Biblical valley where the battle between David and Goliath is said to have taken place....
, Rendition
Rendition (film)
Rendition is a 2007 drama film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri who was...
, and Lions for Lambs
Lions for Lambs
Lions for Lambs is a 2007 American drama film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. It stars Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep...
opened and failed to generate much box office revenue, the studio and Neil Burger decided to schedule it for Spring 2008.
When the film's future remained in limbo, producer Rick Schwartz
Rick Schwartz
Rick Schwartz is an independent producer and financier whose credits include The Departed, Black Swan, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Others....
acknowledged the difficulty in marketing a war-related film to an audience that recently had rejected three, although The Lucky Ones primarily is a road movie
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...
, and its sole combat scene lasts only forty seconds. "What should we do with this one?," Schwartz wondered. "Do you do a trailer that’s more light and comedic that hides the fact that it’s really about three soldiers, or do you try to stay as true to the spirit of the film as possible?" Burger considered either trimming the already short combat scene or removing it completely "to somehow mitigate or minimize the problem, or the perceived problem," but ultimately decided, "To not have the more serious scenes to balance out the humor feels somehow disrespectful to these characters."
The film premiered at ShoWest
National Association of Theatre Owners
The National Association of Theatre Owners is a trade organization based in the United States whose members are the owners of movie theaters. Most major theater chains are members, as are many independent theatre operators; collectively, they account for the operation of over 26,000 motion...
on March 10, 2008 and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
before opening on 425 screens in the United States and Canada on September 26. It earned $183,088 on its opening weekend, ranking #33 at the box office. The film was pulled from theaters after only one week in release.
Critical reception
The Lucky Ones received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a score of 31% based on reviews from 69 critics, with top critics giving an average score of 38%, and reports a rating average of 5 out of 10. The site reported an overall consensus that, "The Lucky Ones features heartfelt performances, but is undone by the plot's overwrought parade of coincidence and contrivance."
Laura Kern of the New York Times noted the film "has little interest in making bold pro- or antiwar proclamations. With a smooth, light touch (though not without bumps and awkward moments) it focuses instead on the idea that the present and the people who factor into it are all we really have. Aside from the opening, the only combat scenes to be found here are strictly domestic, and, in terms of its lead characters, internal . . . Their journey is jampacked with misadventures and personal epiphanies, some touching, others laughably contrived . . . But because the lead actors work so well together, adding depth and levels of vulnerability to fairly underwritten roles, the emotional consequences of the sense of displacement these 'lucky' characters — lucky to be alive, lucky to have met one another — must deal with always ring true."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
observed, "What makes "The Lucky Ones" so gratifying to me is anything but gravitas; these three characters are simply likable, warm, sincere and often funny. The performances are so good, they carry the film right along . . . I believe audiences will be moved by the characters. I was."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film B- and noted, "It's all very facile — war's domestic fallout made into feel-good fodder — but The Lucky Ones isn't dull, and the actors do quite nicely, especially McAdams, who's feisty, gorgeous, and as mercurial as a mood ring."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
thought, "It's hard to find the genuine heartfelt moments . . . under the clutter of narrative contrivances and coincidences . . . The daily life-and-death crises these characters faced in Iraq are replaced on their trip by the less dire but still pressing matters facing them at home, the subtext being that Iraq represents a distraction from domestic matters, which consequently suffer from neglect. There are moments when the sought-after poignancy born of this dilemma is felt, but they are all too fleeting and dominated by exaggerated dramatics and broad comedy, especially as they relate to intimate matters. Tone overall is ill managed."
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post said the film "is drenched not just in contrivance but condescension, for its protagonists and the clueless civilians they encounter. Surely all those constituencies deserve better."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
called it a "thoughtful portrait" but added, "As the film meanders, the powerful moments barely outnumber the ridiculous . . . When the movie works, it's a nice snapshot of a space and time, which is aided by Burger's decision to film on location (with at least 30 percent of the film taking place inside the minivan). But he makes several wrong turns, starting with the sound. The musical score features jaunty, lighthearted piano tinkling and strings that should have been destined for a Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
spin-off, not material this serious. And the road noise coming from outside the minivan is a constant distraction. Although many of the developments feel novel and spontaneous . . . others challenge the audience to accept behavior and coincidences that often seem outlandish. Some of the scenes adopt the forced wackiness of an Arrested Development episode, and the final 15 minutes are particularly frustrating . . . All of the actors make the best of well-intentioned plot turns that often don't feel true. The Lucky Ones has plenty of heart and courage. If it only had a brain ..."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
rated the film 2½ out of four stars and commented, "So far, the box office has not been terribly kind to movies about the Iraq war or the soldiers who wage it. The Lucky Ones is not likely to alter that situation, although the solid threesome of actors at the film's core and the storyline set entirely on American soil may earn the film greater props from moviegoers than some of the previous films. In many ways, The Lucky Ones is a universal story about rudderless Americans, not just this particular pack of Army veterans. Yet, the story . . . contains too many coincidences and convergences to wholly ring true . . . Robbins is quietly effective as the elder of the bunch, while Peña shows us something of the growth of a cocky kid into sobering adulthood."
DVD release
The film was released on Region 1 DVD on January 27, 2009. It is in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with an English audio track and English and Spanish subtitles. The sole bonus feature is A Look Inside The Lucky Ones, which includes interviews with cast and crew members.