Imagine the dryness in your mouth, the knot risingfrom your stomach and the stiffness of your tongue when knocking on astranger’s door to tell them their son or daughter, husband or wife, is dead.Your starched green Army dress sends a signal. If the stranger is next of kinto someone in the service, they might already know the content of your messagebefore you can say, “The secretary of the Army has asked me to inform you…”
At least in TheMessenger, the soldiers assigned this unhappy task are given no training.It’s not desirable duty. Only three months remaining on his enlistment, Sgt.Montgomery (Ben Foster) tries to beg off his assignment to a “casualtynotification team.” He has returned from one of America’s wars as a decorated hero,but a little damaged. The last thing he wants is to be the angel of death tothe families of men like those with whom he served. But there is no choice.Montgomery is placed under Capt. Stone (Woody Harrelson), a bullet-headed cynicand Army lifer who lays down a strict set of rules: Stick to the script; don’tuse weasel words like “passed” or “lost”; call the dead soldier by name; do nottouch the NOK (next of kin)not even a handshake or a hug. Got that, sergeant?
The responses from the families they visit areheartbreaking and varied. A mother pleads with Stone and Montgomery as if they can restore her lovedone to life; a father cusses them out and wishes they had died instead; anotherbreaks into tears, hearing the Army secretary’s greetings in Spanish through atranslator. One woman (Samantha Morton) accepts their message with good grace.Soon enough, Montgomerybegins a diffident courtship.
Written and directed in sober tones by OrenMoverman, The Messenger is a moviebuilt around conversations, especially between Montgomery and Stone, whogradually lose their antagonism and bond in the realization that they have morein common with each other than anyone else. Foster’s character is a study inrestraint coming unglued at all ends, while Harrelson’s Stone steals manyscenes through his angry outbursts. Both men are acutely aware that the bottomline of any war, regardless of the speeches and flag waving and yellow ribbons,is that people will die. In The Messenger,the gap between those who have stared at death and the uncomprehendingcivilians back home has not been so sharply drawn by any director since WilliamWyler and his 1946 meditation on those who served in World War II, The Best Years of Their Lives.
The Messenger opens Feb. 12 at the Downer Theater.
