A deeply moving story and another plus for HBO. To my mind you just don't see too many movies that have this kind of honesty. One that comes to mind was The Straight Story. Taking Chance, though, is a completely different theme dealing with death, respect, honor, patriotism, family and love. Fortunately all of this is handled in a straightforward no-nonsense way and thank goodness it was. Hollywood really doesn't have too much of a reputation for presenting a simple truth without twisting it into something else.
The story unfolds very much like a documentary I thought. Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Col. Michael Strobl as the military escort taking the body of a dead soldier home to be buried. His performance was just right as was everyone else because the story was greater than all the parts combined. Particularly rewarding to watch, while the coffin, covered by the flag, was at airports or on the highway, was the way ordinary people took it upon themselves to pay their respects to someone they didn't know but who had died for his country: for them.
I don't know if this kind of movie is awards material. I think the story, in its simplicity and honesty, puts it way above the hype, razzle-dazzle and celebrity PR nonsense that surround awards. It's just too good to be commercialized in that way. It would be wonderful if its stature was achieved by word-of-mouth alone.