Based on a true story, "Megan Leavey" is that rare breed: a war movie that actually shows something new about war, a sub-culture within a familiar sub-culture, the world of the military's K-9 units. For that alone, it should be applauded. Everyone should know how incredible these dogs are. But beyond its fascinating informational aspects, "Megan Leavey" is a powerfully emotional film that somehow—unbelievably, considering the subject matter—avoids sentimentality altogether.
Kate Mara is Megan Leavey, seen at the outset of the film as an aimless young woman living in upstate New York, sleeping all day, fighting with her mother (Edie Falco), doing nothing with her life. One day, after seeing two Marines in their parade-ground finest walk into a recruiting center, she joins up. And before she can even catch her breath, she's in boot camp. The opening sequence of "Megan Leavey," setting up Megan's life "before" is no longer than five minutes. Boot camp passes in a raging montage showing recruits climbing walls, doing pushups, being screamed at, etc. (The real-life Megan Leavey is one of those screaming drill sergeants.) The "setup" is not belabored. We get it in two or three shots. Cowperthwaite is an efficient director, and the script (by Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo, Tim Lovestedt) is also a model of efficiency. In an industry where movies, in general, are too long, where every "t" is crossed to make sure we "get it," such productivity is almost a miracle. We do get to know Megan over the course of the film, but we get to know her through her relationship with the dog she is assigned once she joins the Marine Corps' K-9 unit, a ferocious and difficult to handle German Shepherd named Rex. It is only in that relationship that Megan, like the Velveteen Rabbit, starts to "become real."
Why Megan is drawn to joining the K-9 Unit is—like her reasoning for joining the Marines in the first place—left unsaid. After misbehaving one night with a couple of other drunk recruits, she is assigned "shit detail," literally it turns out, cleaning the dog cages. But she watches the handlers working with their dogs in the outdoor training area, and lobbies to get a position with the unit. The commanding officer is Gunny Martin, played by Common, who was so phenomenal just recently in "John Wick: Chapter 2," and is great here as well. Megan pesters him enough that he finally gives her the go-ahead. And, of course, she is assigned the dog she fears the most, the dog that everyone fears the most: Rex.
"Megan Leavey," so good in its most important aspects, is especially good in these sequences showing the training processes for these soldiers and dogs. This is an aspect of military culture we have not seen before. The dogs know how to sniff out explosives, but the soldiers have to learn how to give commands, to praise, to guide, and—if necessary—to provide medical assistance to their injured canines. All of this requires intense bonding and mutual trust. As the K-9 trainer (Tom Felton) reminds Megan: "Everything you feel goes down leash." Megan is not a particularly warm person, she doesn't make connections easily. The trainer says to her, "I can't teach you how to bond."
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