The Messenger

admin | June 13, 2011 | Comments (0)

DIR: Oren Moverman • WRI: Oren Moverman, Allesandro Camon • PRO: Mark Gordon, Lawrence Inglee, Zack Miller • DOP: Bobby Bukowski • ED: Alexander Hall DES: Stephen Beatrice • Cast: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker, Steve Buscemi

Very few mainstream American in the modern era seem to address the issues and lives of the working class and the disenfranchised. On the rare occasion this occurs as with David O. Russell’s recent The Fighter, the more conventional or clichéd elements of the story are brought forward somewhat at the expense of emotional authenticity and in that films case the Rocky-like narrative take away from Russell’s real achievement in depicting a gritty, lived in set of circumstances that never felt phoney despite the presence of major Hollywood stars. It had the feel of real life, messy and complicated for the most part.

With the studios backing away from material that reflects a tangible reality or deal with complex subject matter, it is left to those filmmakers working outside of the system to carry the creative torch and produce challenging and thought provoking works that portray the lives of ordinary American citizens.

One area in which the studios have backed away from slowly in the past decade is America’s involvement in Iraq and the Middle East with underwhelming box office takings for the likes of The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, Stop Loss and more recently The Green Zone reinforcing the belief that the general public weaned on 24-hour news and media coverage of events in the region since 9/11 have no desire to see the news replicated on the big screen packaged with big name stars.

Escapism and regression into fantasy is now the default setting for big-budget filming with only Kathryn Bigelow’s independently financed and produced The Hurt Locker overcoming the Iraq/Middle East War Movie Stigma and having some cultural impact.

First time director Oren Moverman’s film The Messenger, released in 2009 seems to have had some trouble picking up a distributor on this side of the Atlantic, which is baffling considering that it received Oscar® nominations for Moverman and Camon’s original screenplay as well as for Woody Harrelson’s excellent performance.

Ben Foster portrays Will Montgomery, a young soldier who has recently arrived back from fighting in Iraq, which has left him with minor injuries and psychological trauma. Finding it difficult to readjust to civilian life, he attempts to reconnect with his long term sweetheart but he discovers that in his absence she has moved on and is now engaged to another man. With a few months left on his enlistment time, Will is assigned as an officer in the Army’s Casualty Notification department where under the guidance of the more seasoned career soldier Captain Stone (Woody Harrelson) he is given the responsibility of informing civilians of the death of their loved ones on the field of battle; an unenviable and difficult task for which he has no prior training or experience. In the course of their visits, Will comes into contact with Olivia (Samantha Morton) whose husband was recently killed in the war. He is immediately struck by her serene and forgiving nature, and a more mutual attraction grows between them; he reminds her of her husband and she represents an opportunity for nurture and security, a sense of purpose outside of his duty to the army.

Moverman uses his camera in a subtle, impressionistic way that is never heavy handed with the characters slowly revealing themselves to us as the film progresses and in snatches of behaviour that he reveals to us, for example the fact that Montgomery finds it difficult to sleep or eat properly, Stone’s compulsive womanizing masking a deep loneliness, behaviour rather than dialogue is favoured to illustrate the inner workings of these proud yet conflicted men.

This strong yet subtle directorial hand also draws out some strong performances from the talented cast who breathe full, three-dimensional life into these characters with Foster’s usually clenched acting style perfectly suited to the part but it’s his chemistry with the more loose and woolly Harrelson that really elevates the film with the latter really stealing the show with an understated mixture of bravado and understated vulnerability.

The relationship between Foster and Samantha Morton as the war widow is also sensitively played, though Morton’s American accent still isn’t quite convincing to these ears and we never get a real sense of what makes her character tick or what drives her choices. She remains somewhat ambiguous and seems to be less fleshed out than the two male leads.

The Messenger in a way recalls classic ’70s dramas such as The Last Detail or Five Easy Pieces, character pieces that used to be financed and distributed by major studios and that delved deep into a specific ambiance and corner of life with the plot driven by the characters rather than the other way around. The films approach to dealing with the subject of post-war trauma is free from sensationalism and exaggeration for contrived dramatic effect. A quietly powerful and intimate piece, The Messenger is a reminder of American independent cinema at its finest.

Derek Mc Donnell

Rated 15A (see IFCO website for details)
The Messenger is released on 17th June 2011

The Messenger – Official Website