THANK ME FOR MY SERVICE

When was the last time that you watched something that you couldn’t stop thinking about? As someone who watches A LOT of television and movies pretty much non-stop, it's become increasingly rare for a piece of entertainment to stick with me long after I've watched it. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to watch Christopher Wayne Sparks' Thank Me For My Service: A Veteran's Cry For Help, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. Granted, this documentary feature does not come without its issues. They are very apparent, and this will take a heavy amount of patience to sit through.

Thank Me For My Service follows Chris, a veteran truly crying for help as he tries to take the time he needs to lock himself away in a motel room and complete his one man show aptly titled, Thank Me For My Service. Grappled with constant worries and concerns from his family and his therapists, all he's hoping and asking for is two days to complete his story.

Now I cannot deny that I found this to be a profoundly moving experience. For the majority of its runtime, this is very much presented as a “fly on the wall” experience, with zero narration aside from direct first person vlog-style videos from Chris himself and no interviews from outside sources. With the exception of a few voices from off-screen people in Chris' life, there isn't much else to this. It is very much a one man show. Because of this approach, I felt as though I was there with him, living out these moments just as he did.

Personally, I'm very conflicted about the approach as this is both my favorite and least favorite aspect of the film. My biggest gripe is that there is virtually zero actual presentation to this. We are treated to one title card in the beginning and the end, and that is it. What follows is a series of vlog-style videos occurring in real-time with no cuts from one video to the next. An extended sequence mid-way through where Chris visits his therapist's office being both heart-breaking and cumbersome to sit through. Again, this approach does lead to some pretty severe pacing issues, and they cannot be disregarded. I do think this could be tightened up significantly with about 15-20 minutes worth of content to lose with minimal impact to the overall message. However, I can't help but think these choices were all very intentional and I admire the courage it took to put this together in such a raw form.

Thank Me For My Service is not a feel good watch, and I don't think I could ever watch it again; not because of the negative elements I'd previously mentioned but rather because it left such an emotional impact on me. Christopher Wayne Sparks has made something here that is hauntingly sad at times because of how genuinely real it is. Despite its shortcomings in presentation and lack of traditional storytelling, this is a story that will not leave you after you watch it.

7/10
- Dante Aubain