The Messenger

Nov 8

Nov 8

Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories
USA • 2009 • in English & Spanish • 112 min • R

In his most powerful performance to date, Ben Foster stars as Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army officer who has just returned home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers, Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find comfort and healing back on the home front. When he finds himself drawn to Olivia (Samantha Morton), to whom he has just delivered the news of her husband's death, Will's emotional detachment begins to dissolve and the film reveals itself as a surprising, humorous, moving and very human portrait of grief, friendship and survival.

Club reactions by city:

moderated by Brittain Smith
with guest Gerald Peary, Boston Globe Film Critic

Painful but moving.

An unflinching look at grief and the ravages of these two wars.

Heroic in these times.

moderated by John MacKay

A brutally honest study of loss and moving forward, aided by tour-de-force, searing performances and beautiful handheld cinematography.

Moving depiction of grief, rage, loneliness. I liked the fact that it didn't stoop to becoming a tear-jerker - it maintained dignity with humor.

(from a Vietnam veteran): This is a film whose time has come (maybe past due). Attention must be paid to the tremendous psychological damage of war to soldiers and their extended families, which I feel most Americans choose to ignore, and which will be with us for years. I loathe this war.