In “Last Flag Flying,” Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne play old friends who come together in the face of tragedy.
When Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Carell) learns his son was killed while serving overseas, he enlists the help of his estranged Vietnam friends to help him retrieve his son’s body and take it back to his home for burial.
“I think he honesty of the storytelling is what first drew me to it,” Cranston told CNN.
What unravels is an exploration of grief and a timely reminder about the cost of war.
The film opened in theaters the weekend before Veteran’s Day.
“I feel like the whole thing is kind of timeless,” Fishburne said. “When you’re dealing with the tragic death of a loved one who served in the military, that’s as old as our country.”
The film, directed by Richard Linklater, doesn’t get bogged down in its morose subject, though. The three men’s chemistry contributes to some lighter moments.
Fishburne said the cast made each other laugh.
“Working with Bryan Cranston and Steve Carell, that’s easy because we can make each other crack up all day long,” Fishburne said. “And then we had the support of the script, the support of the material, which has that somber tone running all through it. So it was just a matter of playing lightly on top of it.”