Devotion

 

Score:  C

Directed by J.D. Dillard

Starring Jonathan Majors and Glenn Powell

Running time: 138 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Based on a true story, Devotion focuses on a rare set of wingmen in Jesse (Majors) and Tom (Powell), sent to battle during the Korean War.  The set up, combining fascinating historical events in desegregation of the military and the ("forgotten") Korean War, are sidelined in this extremely generic, predictable, and artless war movie.  The script writers and many of the actors here are clearly Hollywood's "B" team, at best.  Skip this.

In 1950, shortly after the desegregation of the United States armed forces, Navy aviator Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Powell) joins a new squadron that includes a single Black man, Jesse Brown (Majors).  The two struggle for the same objectives - the respect of their team and a chance to serve their country - in different ways, and soon get the chance to do so when the squadron is deployed at the dawn of the Cold War.  Despite coming from much different backgrounds, the men develop a bond, one that is both tested and cemented in the cauldron of war.

Devotion is a flop of a war movie, due to poor filmmaking and a lack of artistic creativity and vision.  It's particularly unfortunate, too, because the movie's premise is quite intriguing:  a focus on a Black and white friendship just as the armed forces desegregated (but still several years before the Brown decision) and dealing with an extremely neglected event in the Korean War.  Now, there are some worthy elements in the movie.  The fighter plane action and aerial stunts are engaging (though put to shame by the Top Gun sequel) and much of the production (costumes, sets) feel authentic and believable.  The best scene in the movie is one of the few that's both artistic and moving:  Jesse, preparing himself for a crucial test flight, looks directly in a mirror, and you see only his face, morphing from rage, to despair, to determination in a clever illustration of his background and experiences.

Unfortunately, even with this great premise and a talented actor in Jonathan Majors, the movie feels slapdash, extremely straightforward and lacking in artistry, resulting in an unusually dull experience.  I see war movies, oddly, similar to sports movies: both have an inherent "action" element to them that can be very tense and riveting but can also easily go either overboard (see - rather, don't see: Hacksaw Ridge) or numb the audience to it.  They are also quite vulnerable to predictability: there have been so many of each, with well-worn structures, that you really need strong, specific elements or to overturn convention in some way.  Devotion, its war scenes taking place mostly in the (bloodless) sky, falls more towards numbness, made much worse by an extremely predictable story - not just in what happens, but in the way the movie presents it.  It's maddeningly by-the-book, hitting all the familiar beats.  Digging deeper, the script and acting don't do it any favors, either.  Majors is pretty good, though he's limited by the writing, and there are some downright painful performances, particularly the squadron's commander (distractingly played by Life in Pieces' Matt) and a ridiculous Liz Taylor "cameo".  There are a few interesting side elements introduced here and there - such as Jesse's concerns about a new plane design - but they are either resolved or disappear before you know it.  That brings us full circle, in that Devotion also pays shockingly little attention to the two major historical events previously mentioned (desegregation and Korean War).  Those who don't much about them before seeing the movie will know very little more, and in fact might be even more confused.

***

I went to Devotion hoping to see a movie that combined elements of both an exciting blockbuster with the high quality of an Oscar contender - and got neither.  Bewilderingly, it has an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes; I think the critics saw a different movie than I did.  Sometimes I realize my disagreement is a matter of taste, but this is an objectively poor movie.  It's also somewhat interesting to compare it to Top Gun: Maverick from earlier this year.  I don't know Devotion's background, but based on the way it turned out, I can imagine that the studios just wanted to cash in on Top Gun's success with another fighter plane-based movie.  Well, even if you've already seen Top Gun a few times, I'd recommend watching it again instead of seeing this one.  Hopefully there will be much better things coming to theaters soon.

* By http://www.impawards.com/2022/posters/devotion_xxlg.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71442144