Review of The Messenger (2009) by Danny S — 20 Jun 2010

"The Messenger" is a tale of two halves.

The first half is brilliant, well written, has top notch acting and dialog, and pulls you in with ease. Watching two characters with completely different ideas of what it means to defend our country as they go from family to family informing them that they lost a loved one is just about as interesting as it gets.

Ben Foster is depressed, surly, and spends the first half of the movie merely tolerating the down-and-out Woody Harrelson. A character who only has his job to keep him going. A lifetime soldier who only saw action in Desert Storm who envies Foster and his battle scars.

But, right when things get good, the wheels fall off.

Foster's character inexplicably starts falling for a single mother that they met while informing her that he husband was killed in action. His overtures are actually stalker-ish in nature and the relationship feels awkward and forced.

Also, after a great build up between two characters who seemingly dislike eachother, they suddenly and out of the blue become buddies ... going on an all night drinking binge. It just didn't make sense and was so sudden and out of place that you wonder if part of the movie is missing.

The first half carries this movie to a three star rating as it was superb. But the second half falls flat on its face and prevents "The Messenger" from being truly great.

10 Scale Score: 6.5 ...