‘The Lucky Ones’

Also contrary to popular opinion, not all made-in-Vegas movies feature lights-at-night cruisin’ down the Strip, or booze-fueled tourists doing stupid things they spend the rest of the movie forgetting — and/or regretting.

"The Lucky Ones" sidesteps many of the cliches we associate with the genre we know as Cinema Pair-a-dice-o.

"The Lucky Ones" also counters an even more insidious cinematic trend, proving that not all movies about Iraq warriors have to focus on the war itself.

Sure, the three central characters who serve as the movie’s "Lucky Ones" are U.S. soldiers, home on leave from Iraq.

But these three are far more concerned with adjusting to a homeland they haven’t seen in a long time. And, in the process, trying to find — and define — home.

As such, "The Lucky Ones" emerges as the latest in a long line of road-trip movies where the journey’s as much inward as outward.

Those movies can sometimes be hopelessly pretentious, but "The Lucky Ones" thankfully steers clear of most overt grandstanding, allowing its endearing characters to speak — and, more importantly, act — for themselves.

Of course, it helps to have a trio of performers as sensitive, sensible — and watchable — as Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña embodying those characters.

It also helps that director Neil Burger ("The Illusionist"), who shares screenwriting duties with novelist Dirk Wittenborn, seems perfectly content to let "The Lucky Ones" roam quirky byways and back roads — unlike most mainstream movies that hit the Interstate and floor it.

Not that the movie’s title characters ever plan to hit the road together. It just works out that way, as the three find themselves on the same flight back from medical treatment in Germany.

Army Reservist Cheaver (Robbins), his tour of duty finally up, plans to return home to St. Louis and resume life as a suburban husband and father. Colee (McAdams), estranged from her mother, hopes to find a surrogate family all her own: a fallen battlefield buddy’s parents, who live in Las Vegas. T.K. Poole (Peña) also is bound for Sin City, where he plans to reunite with his fiancée. Eventually.

After the trio’s plane lands in New York, however, it turns out that nobody’s going anywhere. At least not by plane, because a power blackout has grounded every flight.

Fortunately, there’s one minivan left at the car rental counter (yeah, right — only in the movies), so Cheaver agrees to take Colee and T.K. as far as St. Louis.

Anyway, that’s the plan — which goes inevitably awry, sending our intrepid trio on a cross-country mission that, in a strange way, echoes their Iraq experience. That is, they venture forth on an unknown road through possibly perilous territory, dealing with whatever they encounter.

In Iraq, that might be unidentified explosive devices hidden at the side of the road. In America, it might be condescending college girls at a local bar — or friendly folks at a church service who invite them home for supper.

And, just as they would on patrol, our comrades-in-arms look out for each other, creating an unspoken but unshakable bond that holds fast — even when they reach the end of the trail in Las Vegas.

Throughout, "The Lucky Ones" demonstrates its desire to take the road less traveled, a route exemplified by its cinematic treatment of Las Vegas. Rather than knock your eyes out with glowing light shows, Burger and cinematographer Declan Quinn (who also shot the haunting nightscapes of "Leaving Las Vegas") serve up a parched daytime view, including seldom-seen sights that range from an older Sunrise Mountain residence to the City Center construction project.

That fresh perspective extends throughout the movie; even when the action’s predictable, it’s handled in commendably offbeat fashion. (Although Burger and Wittenborn serve up a few too many coincidences for their, and the movie’s, own good.)

Similarly, their strenuous desire to avoid any "Iraq war" baggage gives "The Lucky Ones" a refreshingly low-key feel. Rather than wrestling directly with the weight of combat trauma, the characters must do battle with life’s everyday challenges, leaving us to gauge the severity of their psychic wounds.

Luckily, "The Lucky Ones" themselves are more than up to that task.

McAdams ably layers Colee’s outspoken toughness and her little-girl-lost vulnerability, deftly revealing the humor in each. She and Peña’s blustery, take-charge T.K. have a lot in common — although neither would ever admit it.

Oscar-winner Robbins, meanwhile, proves a master of understated eloquence, signaling his character’s quiet desperation with deadpan restraint, while his younger traveling companions squabble like two bratty kids trapped in the back seat on a long car trip.

Come to think of it, they really are two bratty kids trapped in the back seat on a long car trip.

And the knowledge that, once their leave is up, they’ll be making a more dangerous journey — back to Iraq — gives "The Lucky Ones" a depth-charge impact that doesn’t really hit while we’re on the road alongside them.

It’s only afterward, when we have time to reflect on the journey, that we ponder the adventures we’ve shared with them — and the ones that, if we’re lucky, we won’t.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.