The Messenger

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: November 13th, 2009 (limited)

Starring: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker
 
Directed by: Oren Moverman  

Premise: U.S. Army officer Will Montgomery has just returned home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers, Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find comfort and healing back on the home front.

[Reinhold]

i saw and heard a little bit of this while it was being made. i didn't catch enough at once to really get a sense of it overall but i expect a strong performance from the main male character (i heard more than i saw). i talked to the director a little bit about the film a couple times, too. he described a kind of meandering meditative approach to the point of the film... but he might have just been speaking vaguely because i was an intern at the time.

[Fernando]

wow mac, this was your 20,000 post.

at my pace it would take me 90 years to reach that number 

[I Love a Magician]

due to the nature of the film, it's got 4 or 5 of the most emotional moments of the year. the style reminded me of 'the wrestler' in how its lack of flourishes and preference to just show what's happening as it goes. a lot of following shots. great performances all around, from foster on down to the smaller parts in the families getting the bad news. woody was especially good.

i could have done without a couple of the bigger moments (the wedding party, maybe the cop scene), but definitely one of my favorites of the year. love small, character-based movies like this.

[matt35mm]

I liked this a lot.  Ben Foster is among the best actors I can think of working right now, and most of that comes from his willingness to take risks.  He's definitely a "character-actor" in the sense that he never seems to play himself, and he builds a lot of quirks into the character that are very effective at adding tension, because you never fully know what to expect.  His performance in The Messenger is central to why it works so well.  Really, all the performances are wonderful.  Jena Malone was a bit boring, but serviceable.  It wouldn't even stand out as boring if the other performances weren't all so rich, just because competent looks boring when standing next to inspired.

I thought the direction was brilliant.  Firstly, zoom lenses will always win my heart.  I am incapable of totally hating any movie that has good zooms in it.  Call it my weakness.  Not only do I think that the movement of a slow zoom is beautiful, but it also really gives me the feeling like I'm eavesdropping on a moment, because of the squashed space and the distance between the camera and the subject.  This stylistic choice, along with the long takes, really worked for me.  It made those moments when the families were being informed so gripping, because I couldn't escape.  Each one of these scenes unfolded differently, as different families reacted differently to the news, but to see it all progress in front of my eyes in one take, from a person just going about their day to being confused at the sight of two men in uniform to realizing what had happened... it felt brutally real, and was allowed to play in all its messiness.  There's also a great long take between Ben Foster and Samantha Morton in a kitchen.  It's a simple shot, letting us just watch what I can only describe as a beautifully performed little dance between the two actors.  A delicate moment that was just brilliantly handled.

I quite liked the writing.  It's certainly character-based, and gives the actors a lot of room to breathe in some life into it.  Nothing super flashy, just good sturdy material to work with.  I found all the relationships to develop quite believably, which is a small miracle considering the circumstances involved in how they all meet each other.

While it's not directly about the war in Iraq, in that there's almost no commentary on it, nor any scenes that take place there, it's definitely tackling something to do with the war.  As far as modern films on soldier life and how this war is affecting lives in America, this might be the best that I've seen.  It's a bit like Stop-Loss in some of the ground that it covers, but this is definitely superior.

A strong debut film from Oren Moverman, who proves to be a patient and observant filmmaker, two qualities that pay off in spades here.  I highly recommend checking it out.