In Country

Virtuous but plodding adaptation of Bobbie Ann Mason's critically praised novel about the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Kentucky teenager Samantha Hughes (Emily Lloyd) lives with her "mentally alienated" uncle, Emmett Smith (Bruce Willis), a Vietnam vet still traumatized by his war memories. Herself the daughter of a soldier killed in the war before she was born, Samantha begins to question Emmett about Vietnam, attempting to understand what happened there. Eventually, she too becomes "mentally alienated," discovering the horrors Emmett's silence is meant to hide (although the film ends on an abruptly reconciliatory note). Directed without much grace by Norman Jewi...