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The movie centers on Gabriel Drummer, a soldier who comes home only to realize that his hometown is no different from the battlefield. With the help from his best friend, he searches desperately for the whereabouts of his estranged son and wife.
The final sequence, when all is revealed, is overwrought, excruciatingly shrill, manipulative, and exploitative -- and hardly a surprise to anyone even halfway paying attention.
Mr. Montiel may have had honorable intentions in creating this movie. But what he made is neither a viable work of art nor an effective call to action. It's a sadistic and ghoulish spectacle.
LaBeouf ... ably carries "Man Down" on his shoulders. He has an easy, natural chemistry with Shotwell, and he's a reservoir of buried emotions in his scenes with Oldman.
Montiel's movie gambles everything on an ambitious plot device that doesn't quite come off, but LaBeouf's vulnerability offers an effective portrait of masculinity in crisis.