As a liberal, I am very conflicted about the film The Messenger, which is anti-war and pro-soldier, but not especially good. The main character, Staff Sergeant Montgomery (played beautifully by Ben Foster) is a young, injured Iraq War vet who gets a new post in an Army base in New Jersey (probably Fort Dix) where he lets families know about the death of their loved ones. His commanding officer is Captain Stone, (played by Woody Harrelson), an Operation Desert Storm vet who has been in this position for several years and has learned how to navigate the difficult psychological and inter-personal duties.
Stone, a recovering alcoholic, begins as a hard-ass taskmaster for Montgomery, telling him to check his emotions at the door and perform his duty totally by the book without any human element. As the two grow closer as friends, they butt heads about this protocol vs. tenderness conflict. Montgomery, dealing with some war injuries and light PTSD, has trouble returning to state-side life, and a difficult time squaring the clinical nature in his day-to-day job with his somewhat angry nature.
The first half of this movie is pretty good. Foster plays his role very well. He is filled with intensity and rage at his seemingly impossible situation and at the same time is pitiful and sad. Harrelson is a lovable jerk who is funny and crude and pretty sad in his own right. He is clearly proud of his military record, but slightly hurt that he missed out on the recent Iraq action that engulfs his daily life.
Sadly, writer-director Oren Moverman and co-writer Alessandro Camon lose focus on the guts of the story in the second half as the film turns into a rather common, banal tale about an ex-soldier who can't deal in the non-war world. As it moves along, it becomes more and more anonymous, culminating in a really trite "ex-soldier drunk-at-a-wedding" sequence. Ugh.
At the end of the day, this film basically feels like the film Stop-Loss from last year. It has so much promise - a story that shows the war as a bad thing because of what it does to break the men and women who serve in it - but ultimately it goes rather low-brow, cheesy and dull. The acting performances are very good - especially Harrelson, who is having a really great 2009, by the way - but ultimately the totality of the work is very bland.
Stars: 1.5 of 4
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