Fair Chance

I recently watched a short made-for-HBO movie from a few years back called Taking Chance. It stars Kevin Bacon as a desk-posted marine who, upon seeing someone from his hometown show up on an Iraq casualty list, volunteers for a one-time mission to be the fallen marine's "escort." From plane to plane to hearse to funeral home, he must follow the remains and perform honors at every leg of the journey. The film is about the responses he receives from civilians as he crosses the United States on his journey.

It was a bit of an odd choice for me. While I'm very appreciative of those in the armed services, I'm indifferent at best to the pomp and ceremony of the both the military and, at times, funerals in general. This film puts all that front and center. And yet, it all managed to come off more affecting than affected.

A lot of that has to do with the performance of Kevin Bacon, who really does carry the movie alone. A number of other actors come and go, serving up good moments, but no one else has more than a few minutes of screen time. Without a solid actor in the main role here, you'd have no movie at all.

The movie is said to be based on a true story, adapted from the journal of an actual marine who lived the experience of the main character. Still, I found that to be incidental; you can imagine all sorts of stories just like this having happened all too many times in war, whether or not this particular version of it ever took place.

I'd give it a B, all told. It's all business, doing what it sets out to do in under 80 minutes, and doing a rather good job of it too.