The Messenger reviews
Review by on 28 Sep 2010
The directorial debut of Oren Moverman (screenwriter of Bob Dylan biopic I'M NOT THERE), THE MESSENGER tells the story of Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), who is assigned to the Casualty Notification Office after returning injured from active service in Iraq. Under the harsh tutelage of recovering alcoholic and CNO old hand Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), Montgomery’s task is to break the tragic news of soldiers’ deaths to their wives, girlfriends, mothers and fathers in person... before the ceaseless global information stream lands it on the internet or on CNN.
The narrative impetus, Montgomery’s tender but terrified romantic involvement with Olivia (Samantha Morton), a widow whom he notifies of her husband’s death, is tenderly portrayed by both actors and is a superb and intimate piece of characterisation by Moverman. Yet, for me, it is Harrelson’s performance that stands out. His interpretation of Stone is full of bluster and bravado (eyeing up a barmaid, he quips that “I'd like to strap her on and wear her like a government-issued gas mask“) and these moments steer the film well clear of mawkish Hollywood melodrama. However, it also deftly reveals a man’s poignant struggle to contain his empathy in a job where doing things by the book has never meant more.
In short, with his quiet aesthetic and bittersweet script, Moverman has created a war film where emotion rips through the narrative like shrapnel.
Nicola Runciman
The narrative impetus, Montgomery’s tender but terrified romantic involvement with Olivia (Samantha Morton), a widow whom he notifies of her husband’s death, is tenderly portrayed by both actors and is a superb and intimate piece of characterisation by Moverman. Yet, for me, it is Harrelson’s performance that stands out. His interpretation of Stone is full of bluster and bravado (eyeing up a barmaid, he quips that “I'd like to strap her on and wear her like a government-issued gas mask“) and these moments steer the film well clear of mawkish Hollywood melodrama. However, it also deftly reveals a man’s poignant struggle to contain his empathy in a job where doing things by the book has never meant more.
In short, with his quiet aesthetic and bittersweet script, Moverman has created a war film where emotion rips through the narrative like shrapnel.
Nicola Runciman
Review by on 26 Sep 2010
“We navigate”, Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) instructs his new recruit on the Casualty Notification Team, Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster). But how does a shattered man begin to negotiate the grief of strangers, when he can barely fathom his own?
Oren Moverman’s penetrating debut employs bare-bones camerawork and a subdued colour palette, putting the focus on the dialogue. Co-written by Moverman, the script is by turns singularly intimate and universal, compounded by stirring lead performances. A decorated soldier returning home from Iraq to convalesce from IED incurred shrapnel wounds, Will realises that the final three months of his tour will be the hardest. With the strategic aim of being the first to deliver the news, the two men come to rely on each other, eventually letting their emotions surface in an intensely moving relationship.
Stone is possessed of a wry, often unsavoury humour which assists in masking his own insecurities and handling the job at hand with the intended clinical etiquette. Will struggles to maintain a similar detachment, seeking comfort in recently widowed Olivia (Samantha Morton), who describes having lost her husband to a war which consumed him with ‘rage and fear’. This resonates in Will’s search for purpose and connection, and deliverance from the memories that haunt him. At times the articulation of emotion is unbearably raw, yet Moverman leaves us to draw our own conclusions - more is said about the casualties of war in Will’s piercing, broken stare than in any regurgitated army spiel.
Julie Hrischeva
Oren Moverman’s penetrating debut employs bare-bones camerawork and a subdued colour palette, putting the focus on the dialogue. Co-written by Moverman, the script is by turns singularly intimate and universal, compounded by stirring lead performances. A decorated soldier returning home from Iraq to convalesce from IED incurred shrapnel wounds, Will realises that the final three months of his tour will be the hardest. With the strategic aim of being the first to deliver the news, the two men come to rely on each other, eventually letting their emotions surface in an intensely moving relationship.
Stone is possessed of a wry, often unsavoury humour which assists in masking his own insecurities and handling the job at hand with the intended clinical etiquette. Will struggles to maintain a similar detachment, seeking comfort in recently widowed Olivia (Samantha Morton), who describes having lost her husband to a war which consumed him with ‘rage and fear’. This resonates in Will’s search for purpose and connection, and deliverance from the memories that haunt him. At times the articulation of emotion is unbearably raw, yet Moverman leaves us to draw our own conclusions - more is said about the casualties of war in Will’s piercing, broken stare than in any regurgitated army spiel.
Julie Hrischeva
Film details
The Messenger
Director: Oren Moverman
Actor: Woody Harrelson
Actor: Woody Harrelson
United States, 2010.
112 mins. , with English subtitles.
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