Fort Bliss
Phase 4 Films | Release Date: September 19, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 17, 2014
Monaghan is stronger still. This is a performance that deserves to be noticed. She is crushingly good. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 25, 2014
In Myers’s capable hands, and with a powerful, vanity-free performance by Monaghan, Fort Bliss joins “Coming Home” and “The Best Years of Our Lives” as a movie deeply in sync, not just with the military characters it depicts, but also with the civilian world that awaits them with such confoundingly mixed messages. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensSep 20, 2014
Maggie’s agonizing zero-sum struggle to balance a life of military service and a steady relationship with her son feels fresh, raw, and real — even if the conflict it enacts is as old as the transition between The Iliad and The Odyssey, between the horrors of the battlefield and the difficult journey home. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMartin TsaiSep 18, 2014
Despite what seem like the trappings of a Lifetime movie, writer-director Claudia Myers presents us with an unflinching and complex character study of an imperfect woman. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 16, 2014
Fort Bliss is a solid tough-adjustment-coming-home melodrama built around a superb performance by Michelle Monaghan. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangSep 19, 2014
Fort Bliss is a flawed little gem of a movie, but Monaghan’s flawless performance is its own quiet call to arms. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael NordineSep 16, 2014
[Michelle Monaghan's] at her best as Army medic/staff sergeant Maggie Swann in writer-director Claudia Myers's Fort Bliss. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 19, 2014
Myers, whose background is in documentaries involving Afghanistan and Iraq War vets, is good at capturing the revealing, offhand moments in this story, but Maggie’s conflicts about motherhood and the military needed a greater psychological scope than this film provides. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireSep 19, 2014
Although competently made, the film is such a run-of-the-mill military melodrama that it might have skipped its assuredly brief theatrical appearance and gone straight to VOD. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 18, 2014
Ms. Myers too often tells rather than shows, and she doesn’t have the cinematic skill set to transform her idea into a fully satisfying movie, especially at this low-budget level. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 16, 2014
Though it drags in spots and doesn’t convince on all fronts, Bliss is nonetheless a worthy minor addition to a canon of homefront films. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerSep 17, 2014
A movie like Fort Bliss seems designed to keep her (Monaghan) in fighting shape, in case bigger productions realize that she can do more than kiss a famous co-star. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineCarson LundSep 18, 2014
The complicated psychological realities of army personnel require a tougher directorial treatment than the maudlin melodrama presented here. Read full review
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