Film Review: Devotion Looks At A Friendship Forged Among The Clouds
© Courtesy of the National Post Left to right Jonathan Majors and Glenn Powell at the dedication.The story of two naval pilots who became close friends during the Korean War, Devotion cannot help but be compared to the latest Top Gun: Maverick . What doesn't help is that Glenn Powell, who plays Tom Hudner, also had a small part as a pilot in Maverick and played astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures .
Devotion is more exciting than a Tom Cruise movie, possibly because it's based on a true story. Jonathan Majors plays Jesse Brown, one of the few black American pilots of the time. When Jesse and Tom meet at an air base in Rhode Island in the spring of 1950, they are both sad that they missed "the big show," as the pilots called World War II.
But with the start of the Cold War and rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, these pilots will be in action before it's too late. Before that happens, however, we see Jesse slowly decide if he can trust his white colleague: many people in the service tend to be fired or worse, based on the color of their skin. When it becomes clear that Tom has no problem with race, his wife Jessie (Christina Jackson) asks him to take care of her husband when they give birth.
Devotion , filmed by J. D. Dillard based on the book by Adam Mako, consists of separate scenes without creating further momentum. Then comes a tense moment as the men practice landing aircraft carriers and a disaster shows how death can strike outside the theater of war. A wonderful interlude finds them on vacation in Cannes, invited to the casino by Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan). And on the Chinese-North Korean border there is an exciting battle, in which helicopter "Corsairs" of the Navy oppose modern MiG-15 fighters.
Between these segments, we're back on the plane, with Brown dealing with personal and institutional racism, and Hudner trying to figure out how to be the best friend without crossing any lines. It is a delicate dance.
Ultimately, the episodic nature of Devotion robs the film of some of its power, but not enough to fully sustain it. The cast does a good job, including a strong supporting role from Thomas Sadoski as the unexpectedly charming commander, who would have done one role in many films. If you're a fan of realistic war dramas, this should be enough to recommend Devotion . If you want Top Gun 3 , skip and move on.
Devotion opens in theaters on November 23.
3 out of 5 stars
