The Contractor

Nihilistic take on the struggles of veterans falls short of effective storytelling.

In Tarik Saleh's crisp action thriller, Chris Pine plays a discharged U.S. Army officer whose financial straits lead him down the wrong path.

At a moment when headlines are fanning the flames of war, The Contractor zeroes in on the soldiers who are trained to kill and often taken for granted. 

In the end, The Contractor might be doomed to be one of those movies like Shot Caller, where it turns up on cable or streaming, and you wonder to yourself, wow, how did I miss this? At any rate, it's a well-done action movie with a heart that's worth keeping an eye out for. Pine has rarely been better.