The Messenger

The Messenger

105 Minutes








As the war in Iraq churns into its eighth year, we are fortunate enough to recently receive two films that thoughtfully dissect the overarching consequences of that unfortunate conflict. While Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, examined the psyche of a bomb-removal squad in Iraq, Oren Moverman's The Messenger explores a much more potent, neglected bomb of its own. Though Bigelow may have made a more indelible and gut-wrenching film, The Messenger's importance cannot be denied as it follows two servicemen who must inform the families of soldiers killed overseas of their tragic loss.

Army officer Will (Ben Foster), a wounded veteran, is paired with the much older Tony (Woody Harrelson). The two spend much of the movie driving across New Jersey, delivering horrible news, fighting with each other and trying their damnedest to keep their own personal demons at bay. As they visit more and more families, the emotionally constipated Will begins to find the required stoicism of his job impossible to stomach as he and Tony are required to stand by and do nothing as distraught parents collapse at their feet, attack them or slip into shock.

Much of the film's first act focuses on Will and Tony learning to work together via a series of missions of delivering bad news. Just as tense as any scene defusing an IED in The Hurt Locker, Moverman sets up the anticipation through hand-held shots and long pauses before the men knock on doors or ring doorbells. Many of these early scenes are quite effective as the reactions of the bereaved are impossible to predict. However, casting a well-known actor in one scene is a misstep because it pulls us out of the immediacy of the narrative and instead draws our attention to the actor himself rather than his character's pain.

Though Foster has been hinting at depth in some of his prior, smaller roles (3:10 to Yuma, "Six Feet Under"), The Messenger finally gives the actor the leading part he deserves. Though his Will fashions himself a tough warrior, it isn't long before the job begins to take its emotional toll on him. Meanwhile, Harrelson turns in his second great performance this year as Tony, a career serviceman who obliterates any pain with booze and cheap woman. Following Army protocol, Tony is against providing any comfort to grieving family members, even resting a hand on shuddering backs.

Building on that theme, The Messenger looks at the emotional carnage left behind by war, not only in the families who have to deal with lost love ones, but soldiers like Will and Tony who have been trained to disregard the natural instinct of emotion as a weakness. Unfortunately, the film dips somewhat in the scenes between Will and the newly widowed Olivia (a miscast Samantha Morton). As Will recognizes a fellow sufferer in lost love (his girlfriend marries another man), he tries to resist the strengthening bond he feels for Olivia. However, there is only so far Moverman can stretch this obvious subplot and he pushes it to the fullest.

Infinitely more interesting is the relationship between Will and Tony and how the world at large reacts to their presence. While Harrelson could have played his Tony as a clichéd, walled-off soldier, he injects the character with flashes of humanism that makes his sink into booze and pussy even more tragic. Fortunately, while the rest of society seems to regard the two men with an unwelcome coldness or fear, Will and Tony eventually find a kindred strength between them as each one becomes the other's only check point that can prevent a free fall into oblivion.

by David Harris