Homelessness among military veterans is a noble subject for a filmmaker to take on. So it deserves a better vehicle than “Sgt. Will Gardner,” writer-director Max Martini’s clumsy and sometimes downright laughable portrayal of an injured Iraq war vet.
“Sgt. Will Gardner” is Martini’s first film since 1999’s “Desert Son.” It opens with shots of waves and the American flag, along with the voiceover of Will (also Martini), who is locked in a motel bathroom and assumed to be a squatter by the police banging on the door. He quotes verse — specifically, “The Road Not Taken” — then we get a combat scene, then the cops breaking down the door.