three soldier who have receive non life threaten wound in iraq be together on a plane to new york . two of them be on thirty day leave while the other have serve his time and be on his way home . due to a power outage and all flight out of new york have be cancel . the three agree to rent a car together in order to continue the trip to their destination . thus begin a road trip that be highly dramatic with it share of comic event . fred cheaver be the middle age father figure of the three a man who never really expect to do anything in the army except serve his domestic reserve duty . he be glad to be rid of the whole thing and be head home to his wife and son . the two young soldier who accompany fred be colee dunn and t. k. poole . colee be a bright eyed innocent who be on a mission for a fall comrade who save her life . t. k. be a no nonsense soldier from a family of soldier who plan to make the army his career and move up the chain of command . whereas and fred quest be to return home to wife and son and colee and t. k. goal be to travel to las vega for two entirely different reason . colee want to return her dead comrade treasure guitar to his family . t. k. reason be somewhat mysterious and but we know it be relate in some way to his injury that have leave him temporarily impotent . a with all road trip film and the experience and interaction of these three lead to conclusion not expect by them or the viewer . unlike most film feature vet return from the horror of war and this film be not fill with dark angst not to say the character be not well flesh and genuine . these three be real people with real problem and but their depiction be not heavy hand . during this film and the viewer get to enjoy the work of three excellent actor . tim robbins give his usual fine and understated performance a the old man face some totally unexpected twist of fate . rachel mcadams give colee a likable innocence but also reveal some darker layer of her character . michael peña be very and very good a the macho guy with a heart who only want to be a good soldier . watch these three interact be a real treat . some may consider the treatment of the subject matter of this film too light hand and but it have a gentleness that ring true . it be surely worth watching .