Review by Nick Wheatley
Stars Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Samantha Morton,
Jena Malone, Yaya DaCosta | Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | BD Region B | Runtime 113 minutes | Directed by Oren Moverman
Will Montgomery (Foster) returns from Iraq a war hero and finds himself re-assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. He is partnered and overseen by Captain Stone (Harrelson) together they are given the unenviable job of delivering next of kin the news of their loved ones demise in a war zone. The film depicts the challenges and possible pitfalls of such a job and the task becomes increasingly wearing on Montgomery. However he begins to develop a relationship with a single mother, one who has recently received the dreaded news from Montgomery, ignoring the warnings of Stone who sees the development as very unhealthy.
The focus on such an intensely, emotional assignment is an excellent concept which you'd expect plenty of drama to result from and The Messenger manages to capture that despair and tragedy skilfully. There are many standout individual scenes as news is delivered to different parties throughout the film with the varied reactions to grief providing some powerful and captivating moments. Both the vehement denial of emotional support from the messengers and the rage or agonising pain or disbelief felt from the next of kin.
The first act of the film contains a lot of quality, with Harrelson showing Foster the ropes being the most engaging sequence and raising some thought provoking morale questions. The protocol and procedure for such an emotional moment is fascinating. What time of day should theu arrive? How to deliver the news? What terms to use to describe death? And above all, do not touch the NOK (next of kin) There are many rules to follow but executing those rules becomes a lot harder than first expected and how do you react to an outburst from an NOK? Sometimes shooting the messenger is the easiest thing to do. Plus the two characters are seen as the dreaded grim reapers. When they arrive everyone in the neighbourhood knows what has happened and is just praying they aren't the unlucky one they are looking for.
Harrelson delivers a strong performance as the brutally harsh and well written captain who has the qualities needed for such a ruthless job with some really insightful dialogue at times. Whilst Foster manages to express the difficulty and the slow depression his character is working through. The two work very well together and provide a slightly different take on the 'hardened pro and young rookie' dynamic. The cast is rounded out well with many of the NOK's providing real drama and realistic reactions to the worst news you could ever receive.
However the film does lose the pace of the introduction and the drama fades soon after the first act as the story derails and follows Foster's relationship with the single mother which all happens a bit too quickly. Plus we are also treated to Harrelson's 'wise words' nearly every other scene, speedily becoming repetitive. It doesn't feel like there is quite enough energy or ideas in the tank to stretch this film out to the almost two hour movie we finally got.
This movie seemed to travel under the radar upon release and and I've learnt why. The film starts expertly with a great concept, gets a little muddled in the middle as the two characters begin to spend more time with each other and their relationship shifts too much, particularly when they start fishing together. So the story gets lost and the focus moves from the initial concept never returning back on track. But the film is worth checking out for some strong performances from the leading duo with a few powerhouse scenes sprinkled through the story.
EXTRAS None