Stop-Loss ***

It's been nine years since director Kimberly Peirce's smashing debut, "Boys Don't Cry." Her second effort, "Stop-Loss," tackles an equally difficult subject, the effect of the Iraq war on soldiers, their families, and loved ones. Last year audiences stayed away from Iraq-themed pictures: "Rendition" ($9.7M total box office), "In the Valley of Elah" ($6.8M), even star vehicle "Lions for Lambs" ($15M), not to mention "Redacted" and "Grace is Gone," which each earned less than $75,000. This film, focused on the home front with three young, attractive, and talented leads - Ryan Phillipe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Channing Tatum - could be the first one that people respond to.

The action is not all back home in Texas, however. The movie opens with Brandon King (Phillipe) leading his men into some heavy action in Tikrit. What happened that day weighs heavily on King as he comes home to a hero's welcome in his home town, along with buddies Steve Shriver (Tatum) and Tommy Burgess (Gordon-Levitt), who served with him.

After fulfilling their promises, they are all looking forward to getting out and the transition to civilian life. But for King, it's not to be. He's been "stop-lossed." That means he must go back to Iraq because the army needs more soldiers than it can recruit, and the fine print in his contract allows it. This happened to 80,000 soldiers before the recent "surge" was initiated last year. We don't yet know how many since.

King cannot accept another tour after, as he sees it, fulfilling his end of the bargain. He goes AWOL and embarks on a journey to talk to the Senator who promised an open door when he met him at his homecoming parade. Meanwhile, his buddies are not adapting well to civilian life and the women who waited for them. While sometimes slipping into melodrama, King's trip, made with the help of Shriver's girl friend (a tough/tender Abbie Cornish), gives us a look at the stop-loss resisters' underground, a visit to a wounded comrade, and an awkward interview with a fallen soldier's parents.

In the end, there seem to be no good options for King. By basing her story on a stop-loss soldier, Peirce gives us a view of the war and its effects that is more accessible than if she had chosen an anti-war main character. Ryan Phillipe is convincing in his role, as is Tatum. Gordon-Levitt, in an underwritten role, seems to have little to do. Direction and composition are fine, and the opening action sequence is first rate. We'll see what the public makes of it.

Rated R. 113 minutes. Directed by Kimberly Peirce. Written by Mark Richard and Kimberly Peirce. Produced by Kimberly Peirce, Gregory Goodman, Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin. Cinematography by Chris Menges. Music composed by John Powell. Production Design by David Wasco. Edited by Claire Simpson. Distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Principal actors: Ryan Phillipe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, Rob Brown, Abbie Cornish.