Producers: Paul Scanlan, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Terri Lubaroff, Ray Maiello, Mike Field, Richard Silverman and Robert Paschall Jr.   Director: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes   Screenplay: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes and AJ Bermudez   Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Gloria Reuben   Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment

Grade: B-

Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ debut feature is a fairly pedestrian message movie, but the workmanlike, often bumpy approach–resembling that of a solid telefilm–doesn’t seriously dilute the power of the message, which centers on the psychological damage suffered by soldiers who’ve served in combat.

The protagonist is Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a veteran of the war in Afghanistan; periodic flashbacks show her with her comrade-in-arms and best friend Zoe (Natalie Morales) while they navigate the barbs of their male colleagues and the dangers posed by enemy snipers as they patrol the camp.  Zoe is the caustically energetic counterpart to the more subdued, recessive Merit.  She’s particularly cutting when she discusses her friend’s plans to go to college back home; she’s considering re-enlisting, though Merit insists that their closeness will survive the return to civilian life.

Now Merit is back stateside, accompanied by the loquacious, sardonic ghost of Zoe, who, we are given to assume as those flashbacks progress, was too ready to put herself in harm’s way in Afghanistan.  She even goes with Merit to group therapy sessions ordered by the court as an alternative to possible jail time for an accident she’d caused.  They’re conducted by Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman), who repeatedly warns that he won’t be able to sign off on Merit’s participation unless she attends regularly and talks about what’s troubling her.

But Merit has another issue to deal with.  She’s informed by her mother Kris (Gloria Reuben) that her granddad Dale (Ed Harris), a widower and army vet living alone at a remote lakeside house, has begun to suffer from serious mental lapses, the result of early Alzheimer’s.  Kris insists that her daughter check on him, and naturally Zoe tags along.  The story thus becomes a binary one, juggling Merit’s struggle with Dale’s and bringing both to resolutions that emphasize patriotism along with personal flaws.

But that’s not all.  Hausmann-Stokes and co-writer AJ Bermudez also shoehorn into the plot a romance between Merit and Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a genial fellow she meets—cute, of course—while out on a run as he’s cutting grass as the cemetery.  Coincidentally he turns out to be the manager of the senior living center where Kris ad Merit are angling to move Dale.  Naturally there’s a scene, set at a local July Fourth celebration, where Dale learns accidentally how Merit and Alex know each other. 

That gives Harris the opportunity to take the gruffness he brings to Dale to the highest level, cementing another of his predictably believable turns, and Freeman is equally convincing in exuding stern but patient concern.  On the other side of the age spectrum, Martin-Green balances toughness and vulnerability well as Merit, while Morales brings Zoe’s sometimes irritating intensity vibrantly to life even in spectral form.  Together they pull off a last-act flashback that’s likely to startle most viewers   Ambudkar makes Alex, a guy who might have been grating, instead ingratiating.

Technically this is a modest film, but Whit Vogel’s production design and Dionne Barens’ costumes capture the changing timeframes skillfully enough, while Ali Greer’s editing makes those transitions, if not seamless, coherent—using the abruptness of the flashbacks to suggest the discomfort of Merit’s PTSD-driven recollections.  Dan Romer’s score is unobtrusive, which is not an adjective one could apply to the pop songs Merit and Zoe are accustomed to sing along with.

“My Dead Friend Zoe” is at times dramatically clumsy, but its sincerity in dealing with the emotional toll combat takes, along with some fine performances, largely compensates for the deficiencies.