I’ve been waiting for a film like this for a long, long time. Incredible, passionate, and contemplative; The Messenger is the kind of film you go to see when you haven’t seen a good one in a very long time. It’s more than worth you money, it’s worth    Everything about this film radiates professionalism and quality; from the acting to the direction and writing. And, you know, there are films on the outside and then there are outsider films. This film has the qualities of both without sacrificing integrity. It reminds me of  a time when seeing a film that was ‘independent’ was truly just that. They were films made by fringe craftsmen to tell stories that otherwise wouldn’t have been told. Each story accompanied with powerful and intimate acting, a director with a keen eye for balance and aesthetic, and  The Messenger is that kind of a film.

The film’s ambiance is similar to that of a documentary. But what could be more fitting a style then that of a fly on the wall for a movie that has its man characters delivery notices of death to unaware and hopeful family members of fallen soldiers? And it’s not just a fly on the wall perspective.The camera itself is alive. It lives and breathes within the immediate sphere of the soldiers. It never moves passed them and keeps an awkward distance after emotional epiphany of the family; much like the characters. The sense of forced alienation is just as evident in the camera as it is in the shot.

Ben Foster is an incredibly talented young actor and watching this film it is not very hard to imagine him as being the first in the next generation of Oscar generating performers (the present being those like Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, etc.). The performance here is not that obvious. In fact, I dare to say that it’s not even a performance. It’s a portrayal. There wasn’t a single moment in this film that I doubted the authenticity of his character. However, it’s the contrast Woody Harrelson’s ‘performance’ as an Army Sargeant whose been around the block more than once that gives the movie most of its dynamic.  And while each character has a real sense of sincerity, there are moments where you realize that both characters are in need of something that the other has. That they are not as whole as they carry themselves to do. And that sort of struggle not to unveil that something (in much the way that military men do) reveals the depth of each individual in such a simple tone that it hits.

The script for this film is extremely solid. The characters are well fleshed out and fully developed throughout the film. However, the strong points stand out in one of the last scenes as Ben Foster’s character tells Harrelson his experience in the hospital after saving his platoon and being received as a hero. The words probably could have possibly stood alone as powerful and passionate without Foster’s incredible performance, but thank god this film was made. And we’ll never know the difference.