The Messenger
Starring: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Jena Malone
Director: Oren Moverman
Rating: 3.5/5
Over the last couple of years there have been a whole host of movies that have looked at the 'war on terror' but The Messenger puts a whole new spin on this genre and is an emotional watch.
Whilst recovering at home from a severe injury he sustained whilst in combat in Iraq, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Foster) is reluctantly posted to the forces’ Casualty Notification Office, whose heart-rendering job it is to inform families that their relatives have died in combat.
Montgomery has more than a few reservations about his new posting. Untrained in counselling or grief management, and unprepared for the new but equally traumatic aspects of his new role, his mentor comes in the unlikely form of Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson), a career soldier and recovering alcoholic.
When he is required to visit the home of Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton - Synecdoche New York) a woman whose husband has been killed in action, Montgomery finds himself drawn to her strength and faces an ethical dilemma of whether to get close to a woman in such a vulnerable position.
This movie and the director Oren Moverman has to be applauded for the originality of this movie - it is not the run of the mill war movie that has been continually churned out over recent years.
This is an intelligent movie with a smart and really compelling script that follows two soldiers who are suffering for two very different reasons; Will is struggling with what he saw in Iraq while Tony is bitter at never really getting his war.
Sure The Messenger doesn't perhaps tackle the most uplifting of subjects, the death knock, but this movie is one of hope, friendship and grief.
The two central performances from Foster & Harrelson are simply superb as they both struggle with the task that faces them each day.
They are two instantly likable characters that you root for from the very start and hope that they make it unscathed through their troubles.
There is also a great supporting performance from Samantha Morton as the grieving widow. But this movie looks at the army wife in a rather interesting way suggesting that the men that come back are not the same men that left.
This is an incredibly moving drama that mixes heart break and tragedy with comedy - the engagement party scenes in particular are very good.
Moverman has produced a very powerful war movie without ever showing a battlefield - the aftermath can be just as powerful as the fight itself.
But it is the central performances from Foster and Harrelson that are so honest and raw that they in themselves make this movie worth the watch.
The Messenger is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Woody Harrelson