What happens when you take two actors (America Ferrera and Wilmer Valderrama) best known to the wider audience for comic roles on TV and make them important secondary characters in a film about an Iraq veteran staring a relative unknown, Ryan O'Nan?
Magic. Movie magic.
This sadly real movie does not toy with emotions, does not draw them out with over the top drama, rather it makes you feel sorrow for James (O'Nan), his wife Sarah (Ferrera) his family and friends. Not pity, sorrow.
The movie starts with James return from Iraq, Sarah and their friend Michael (Jason Ritter) try to talk to him about what happened and his answer is "I can't remember." He isn't pulling punches or repressing his memory, he cannot remember. His PTSD has caused him to not remember what happened when his squad took a hit, leaving James, Raymond (Valderrama) and one other survivor, Henry (Diego Klattenhoff). Raymond tries not to tell him, and whitewashes his account of the hit their squad took, telling James he's better off not remembering.
After Sarah can't deal with James nightmares and other erratic behavior he and Ray decide to visit Henry at Walter Reed Medical Center, Henry finally tells James the truth about the hit.
The Dry Land is not marked as one I wanted to see in my poor, dog eared, scribbled in catalog. I am so glad I saw it.
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