Review of The Messenger (2009) by Kelly B — 22 May 2011

The movie started out very promising. We're introduced to Woody Harrelson's colorful character, a stark contrast to Ben Foster's brooding, lone wolf character.

Then we see the characters doing the job itself of informing the next of kin of the death of their loved in the war. These make for a very powerful scenes, full of emotion. And each next of kin react a little bit differently each time, and the circumstances of which they were informed also differ somewhat.

After awhile, though, things in the movie start to bog and slow down. I guess they just didn't have enough good material last the whole length of the movie. They tried to add more material, but these just unnecessarily prolonged the movie more than it should, and fell flat in terms of expectations.

I felt the movie had a very promising premise, but script just couldn't sustain the brilliance. The Director also did a poor job of making the film more interesting as it trudged along. They simply wasted a good opportunity with this movie.