If the Iraq War was a trilogy, Green Zone would be the first part, The Hurt Locker the centerpiece and The Messenger the final act. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), was injured in Iraq and is reassigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Along with his partner Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) it is his unenviable job to inform the next of kin about the death of their loved one. While attempting to cope with Tony's austere discipline, Will is attracted to a women that he has informed of her husband's death - despite all the moral conflicts this entails.
Israeli filmmaker Oren Moverman combines a brilliant script with amazing cinematography. Most remarkable is the length of sequences without cuts. There are scenes that carry one for five minutes (leave the car, enter the house, deliver the message, deal with grieving parent, leave house, drive off) with no cuts - immersive, skillful cinema at its best. Equally astonishing is the fact that try as you might you cannot predict what will happen next - a rarity in Hollywood.
The Messenger is the first big role for Ben Foster who previously has been known for his roles in the Six Feet Under TV series and X-Men: The Last Stand. His portrayal of a shell-shocked vet, trying to find his place in Americana is stunning. The scenes in which he - overcome with rage and paying homage to Raging Bull - punches the white walls of his sterile apartment while listening to death metal are as honest as they are raw. After shocking night-vision images of US soldiers shooting non-threatening Iraqis while listening to Drowning Pool raised the old question whether violent lyrics spawn violence, this film shows what Heavy Metal is really about: Letting go of anger.
Woody Harrelson as the seemingly emotionless Captain, whose abandoning of alcohol is just another symptom of commitment to the job, is once again terrific. Despite the graveness of the subject matter, Harrelson adds a subliminal element of comic relief that is hard to put one's finger on - is it perhaps nothing more than his tooth gap? He was rightfully Oscar-nominated and would have won if it wasn't for Christoph Waltz.
Like The Hurt Locker and Green Zone, The Messenger takes a self-reflective, non-glorifying stand on the Iraq War. This new generation of war movies replaces the nerve-wracking battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan and Thin Red Line with gut-wrenching moral conflicts, solitude and doubt. If these are forerunners of things to come, at least the cinematic department will be able to say: 'Mission Accomplished'.
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