'Love and Honor' Goes Soft

The CW version of the Vietnam War and the 1969 counterculture, Love and Honor hews to a mushy formula far older than its subject matter. Given a week of R&R, gregarious ladies man Mickey (Liam Hemsworth) accompanies silent, brooding Dalton (Austin Stowell) back to the States so Dalton can propose to his girlfriend, Jane (Aimee Teegarden), whom he discovers is now a love child named "Juniper." Mickey claims he and Dalton have deserted, a lie that ingratiates him with anti-war hottie Candace (Teresa Palmer) but sets in motion inevitable trouble when the authorities start looking for the duo.

Trailer

Details

Love and Honor was directed by Danny Mooney; written by Jim Burnstein and Garrett K. Schiff; and stars Liam Hemsworth, Austin Stowell, Aimee Teegarden and Teresa Palmer. Rated PG-13.

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More About

• Che Guevara
• Liam Hemsworth
• Austin Stowell
• Aimee Teegarden
• Teresa Palmer

Between the cast's modern hairstyles and attitude and the paint-by-numbers set design and period costumes—replete with Mickey blending in with his new peace-and-love pals by wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt—the action comes across as a prolonged, dreary game of dress-up. That director Danny Mooney shoots his material as though it were a TV show doesn't help, nor does a late sitcom-ish scam to free Mickey from police custody and the stud's earlier, cheesily chaste moonlit smooching with Candace beside a shimmering lake.

By the time everyone self-reflects and comes to understand one another, the film has long since annihilated plausibility via its assault of teenybopper clichés.