Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
2/15/10
It seems like I've written
more on this site about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan then I would have
if this were a political blog: although war-themed dramas have failed
to break through at the box office, they keep coming because the many tolls
of war are on our minds in a big way, and it's something filmmakers of
all budget levels are really interested in exploring. But watching
The Messenger, the feature directorial debut of writer Oren Moverman,
I was taken with just how little luck Hollywood has had putting us inside
the heads of those serving our country. Both the best (In
the Valley of Elah, Brothers and Stop-Loss)
and worst (Rendition, Syriana) of this
generation of war movies are pleas for peace, and while nothing in The
Messenger makes one think for a moment that war is a good thing, it
does step aside from the issue of whether we should be fighting or not
long enough to really see the people caught up in the war machine's gears.
Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson are terrific in the lead roles, and the
script by Moverman and Alessandro Camon really gets fascinatingly into
the science of something (the art of notifying the families of the deceased)
most of us have been fortunate to never give a moment's thought.
The movie isn't perfect (the love story subplot is a non-starter), but
it is a valuable addition to the increasingly massive collection of Millennial
meditations on the nature and toll of war.
Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery
(Ben Foster) has returned from action overseas with injuries, medals, and
time left on his commitment to the Army. We first meet him on a passionate
evening at a motel with former girlfriend Kelly (Jena Malone), who concludes
their get-together by asking him to attend her wedding to another man.
Will reports for duty the following day to receive his new orders, he's
to join Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) on the important task of notifying
the next-of-kin when their loved ones have perished on duty. Tony
is deadly serious about the job, and gives Will the basics: stick
to the script, no physical contact, don't speak to anyone but the official
next-of-kin, don't introduce yourself, and don't say “good morning” (it's
not). But as the duo goes about their duties, it quickly becomes
clear that no notification is cut-and-dry. What to do when one man's
pregnant girlfriend (Yaya DaCosta) pleads for answers while they wait for
the deceased's mother (Portia) to return from next door? Or when
a dead soldier's father (Steve Buscemi) chases them as they try to leave
his property? Or when they run into the parents they're supposed
to notify at a mini-mart before reaching their home? In addition
to what they've already experienced in their service, the job piles massive
stress on the soldiers, who drift through their day-to-day existence in
a haze of insomnia, drinking and, when they're lucky, sex. Will becomes
drawn to Olivia (Samantha Morton), a wife they notify, and strikes up a
tentative romance. But the heartbreaking rituals of his job continue
to wear on him until Tony can see only one answer: a road trip to
Kelly's wedding.
The Messenger is the
classic character study, showing us two superficially cold and officious
officers on their daily rounds and then slowly peeling back the layers
until a final scene in which we feel like we really know them. Will
can't reconcile the image he has of himself with the word “hero”, and Tony
has lived his whole life waiting for the glory of battle and instead seen
only the second-hand tragedy it leaves on the home front. But both
men feel a calling to the military lifestyle, and The Messenger is
not so much a movie about the horror of war's toll as the reality of it.
Tony tells Will at one point that every military funeral should be televised.
Not because he wants the soldiers to get their due, not because he thinks
it would end war. But because then, people would be READY when they
send their loved ones into battle and they don't come back. Both
men are damaged, and Tony is desperately needy, but it remains an open
question how much the military lifestyle caused their problems and how
much it simply proves compatible with them. Obviously, no character
study succeeds without great performances, and Foster and particularly
Harrelson are top-shelf in their roles.
It's also a job study:
one of those movies that puts up the hood on a line of work you've never
really thought about and gets into the nuts and bolts so thoroughly you
feel like you could give it a go by the time the credits roll. Not
that you'd necessarily want to: notifying the families of the dead
is hard, utterly unrewarding work done out of the sense of duty that is
part and parcel of military service. Tony has made a science of it,
but even that does not shield him from its day-to-day effects. But
Camon & Moverman do a great job instructing us in that science, laying
out dozens of “what do you do if” scenarios and addressing everything from
word choice to body language in a way that becomes more and more interesting
the more we watch the guys at work.
Sadly, in the middle of all
this great stuff lies a love story that just doesn't work. It's easy
to understand why Will and Olivia are so quiet and uncommunicative with
each other; even why they're so tentative. But Foster and Morton
have absolutely no chemistry between them, and so what should be scenes
that crackle with subtext instead involve a lot of standing around and
not saying anything. The subplot with Malone is more interesting,
as she represents a past Will can neither embrace nor let go of, and a
world that wants to both celebrate and turn its back on the men in uniform.
With the help of cinematographer
Bobby Bukowski, Moverman has made a movie that is always interesting to
look at even when there's nothing much on-screen. So much action
involves characters driving around that no fewer than five people are credited
with coordinating the parking, and knowing just where to place people,
events and car mirrors in the frame makes a very big difference.
As does finding a unique angle on familiar subject matter, something The
Messenger does very well. |
