Sgt. Cole Lewis returns home from his fourth tour of duty both mentally and physically impacted. After he is placed in the psychiatric ward of a new veteran's hospital, he both begins to heal and begins to fight his toughest battle yet.
To find out that this started out as a short story written by Manning that was later performed on stage off Broadway only made it more evident why this film is so good. The writer/director, lead actor, and the producers have been working on this project for years, translating a short story made play into a feature length film; what they create is beyond moving.
The characters in this film are so well researched that anyone who knows someone touched by war can relate to at least one of them. The story is gripping, and the acting is fantastic. When people like Alan Dale fly across the country to film one scene of a movie simply because they love the story, you know you've hit the mark.
Happy New Year boldly and brilliantly shows the effects of war that no one wants to hear about and few dare to speak about. At moments in this film, I found my jaw clenched with a lump in my throat, holding back emotion. I liked almost everything I saw this year at SXSW, but this is the film that I'm still talking about.
