Review of The Messenger (2009) by Larry S — 11 Dec 2010

Ben Foster can't act. He just tries too hard and it's painful. Samantha Morton can't act either. Woody Harrelson CAN act and his performance here is what makes this movie worth watching. As a stoic Army officer who must inform the next of kin that someone has been killed in action, he presents a character we want to know more about.

Unfortunately, this is Foster's movie and it drags on with dues ex machina scenes of him falling in love with the widow of a soldier killed in war, showing up drunk at his ex-girlfriend's wedding and making a scene, and fighting with his officers, even though they can pull rank and bust his ass.

But they don't. As a matter of fact, would the Army allow an Army sergeant with only a few months left in a position as a messenger without any proper training. I don't know, but what this movie attempts to do, it fails.

Take for instance, a scene in which Steve Buscemi plays a father who hears his son has been killed. He has a good scene, but comes back at the end to destroy it by apologizing for the way he treated Foster and Harrelson for telling him about his son's death.

As a matter of fact, every scene of the next of kin being told of a death is played up with too much melodrama, it's rather annoying. the Buscemi scene would have been a good example to stand alone, but apparently, this movie has a message and it must repeatedly tell you the message and that is the Army has people who do this job and even though they don't like it, they do it anyway.