Film Review: Megan Leavy
Written by: FFT Webmaster | June 4th, 2017
MEGAN LEAVY – 3 (out of 4 Stars)
I must admit, when I first heard about this movie I wasn’t very excited about seeing it. The synopsis that I received really didn’t seem too exciting for me. Based on a true story, it’s about a female US Marine and her bomb sniffing dog in Iraq who uncover explosives saving American lives. Well there have been many similar stories are shown on both the big screen and TV but what intrigued me about this film was its star, Kate Mara.
I have always liked Kate and the rolls she’s played over the years. She brings warmth and human kindness to all her films which I find enjoyable. And so was the case with Megan Leavy.
This is a wonderful story told beautifully by director Gabriela Cowperwaithe. Megan Leavy is the story of a girl from a broken home, going nowhere in life, who has trouble dealing with people. She finds comfort in dealing with hard to love animals, especially a vicious German Shepherd named Rex. Megan works her way through the torturous training of the Marine Corps and upon graduation starts her career off by being discovered by the MPs drunk and urinating behind her master sergeants. As punishment, she is assigned to clean up the animals cages at the canine core. This is where she meets her canine partner, Rex where the two bond. Assigned to the from lines in Iraq, they work together sniffing out bombs and ammunitions in Baghdad. Once injured in an explosion, she re-evaluates her future. Then the time comes when your tour of duty is over and the aftermath that follows.
I really loved this movie. It had the right mix of war, soldier’s misfortune, their difficulties in deal with family, companionship and compassion for others.
At times, it parallels the Academy Award winning film The Hurt Locker but with an entirely different set of circumstances.
While this movie is not for everyone and probably won’t be released to a wide audience, it is definitely a movie worth watching.
FFT Webmaster
The FFT Webmaster use displays whenever an article has multiple authors. It also pops up on articles from old versions of Film Festival Today. The original author byline might be missing! In that case, if you are the author of such an article and see this bio instead of your own, please send us an email. Some of our contributors that might be missing bylines are: Brad Balfour, Laura Blum, and Sandy Mandelberger, among others.