Movies about the Iraq war seem to be quite unpopular at the box office, but that doesn’t seem to stop filmmakers from making them. It’s important to these storytellers to express their feelings and their beliefs about the war, despite the fact that so few people will actually watch their movies.

“If we stay the course and keep these movies in the theaters, we can turn this around,” said Jon Stewart at the Oscars. “Withdrawing the Iraq movies would only embolden the audience. We cannot let the audience win,”

“The Lucky Ones” is the new Iraq war film directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist). Involving three soldiers who come home from war to find that many things have changed in the years of their absence, forced by circumstances, they travel the road together to their respective destinations.

Rachel McAdams stars as Colee, a soldier who’s determined to return a beloved guitar of her dead boyfriend back to his family. Michael Pena stars as TK, an injured soldier that fears his girlfriend won’t accept him due to the complicated nature of his lower wounds. The third soldier, Cheever, played by Tim Robbins, has a wife and son to come home to find how just how much they have moved on with their lives.

The film wants to be a contemporary version of the Oscar-winning “The Best Years of Our Lives.” Both films are about frustrated soldiers that come back home to a cold reality: the country has changed in their absence. “The Lucky Ones” succeeds in sympathizing with these soldiers, as it is primarily concerned with their hopes and feelings. It has nothing profound to say about the war, and maybe that’s a good thing. By focusing on the individual and erasing the scope of the entire war, it avoids preaching the same hot-button messages we’ve heard again and again. The movie is more pro-soldier than it is anti-war.

More than failing to put these people into believable circumstances, however, this movie resorts to things like bringing in a random tornado at just the right moment to dramatically resolve an on-going problem. It’s a road movie, but the reasons why these soldiers stick together can be very contrived at times

I can handle Shia LeBeouf swinging on vines with monkeys, but c’mon! Don’t tell me that the filmmakers have to throw in elements that require the same suspension of disbelief as a movie like “Indy 4.” I mean, really?

But still, the movie has its heart in the right direction. It’s important to honor our soldiers, and I think Burger wants to do that. His film avoids preaching, but sadly, it doesn’t avoid sporadic behavior and unbelievable situations.