'My Dead Friend Zoe' review: An emotional powerhouse brimming with humor, heartbreak
Forget the silly title. "My Dead Friend Zoe," now only in theaters, leads with its heart and that goes a long way toward smoothing the narrative bumps and clunky transitions in this female friendship story about two soldiers, home from the war in Afghanistan and coping with PTSD.
Don't get me wrong. There are rowdy laughs to be had, but there's no way you can laugh off the film's core of hurt.
Scripter Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, in a sincere, scrappy directing debut, is writing what he knows as a former Army paratrooper and Iraq veteran. Hausmann-Stokes' platoonmates, Luis Ramirez-Jimenez and Boris Ventura, inspired the tale.
So why are they being portrayed as women in this loose adaptation of his experiences? It won't take you long to understand, thanks to the unforgettable performances of Sonequa Martin-Green ("The Walking Dead") as Merit and Natalie Morales ("Grey's Anatomy") as her bestie Zoe.
Amid the chaos of combat, they banter, trade barbs, duet to Rihanna's "Umbrella," dodge snipers and firebombs and look out for each other. That support doesn't change when they return home to Oregon. But there is one wrinkle: Zoe is dead. And Merit, filled with survivor's guilt, is talking to a hallucination, which she sees as the only alternative to no Zoe at all.
Among those who think differently are the reliably exceptional Morgan Freeman as Dr. Cole, a VA group counselor who specializes in damaged soldiers and knows how untreated trauma can lead to depression and suicide. But Zoe, unseen to others, mocks the "dopey, woe-is-me" drill. And Merit seizes the first chance she gets to get out of group therapy.
Merit's workaholic mom (Gloria Reuben) has told her that her beloved grandfather, Clay (a superb Ed Harris), a Vietnam vet, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and lives alone in a lakeside cabin. Merit volunteers as caretaker. The idea is for Merit to stop using Zoe as a crutch and move on to the real world, including a flirtation with a civilian (Utkarsh Ambudkar).
The scenes Martin-Green shares with Harris, of the "suck-it-up" school of processing grief, and Morales, irreverent and irresistible as Zoe's livewire ghost, spark with an energy that also underlines how easy it is to leave the mental challenges of returning soldiers unaddressed.
"My Dead Friend Zoe" is a military movie that speaks to soldiers in their own language. After his own tour of duty, Hausmann-Stokes created informational campaigns about the topic. His drive to get the word out is palpable. Travis Kelce is credited among the film's 14 executive producers
Even better, the filmmaker has filled his cast with actors who have actually served and know firsthand about the wounds you can't see on the surface.
"My Dead Friend Zoe" wisely avoids preachiness for a personal approach that makes a tough subject accessible to a wide audience. The result is an emotional powerhouse brimming over with humor and heartbreak. You're signing up for quite the edifying surprise.
