Ben Foster, Samantha Morton, Woody Harrelson, Eamonn Walker, Jena Malone
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 se...( read more
)
Stats: 143 reviews
Sometimes there comes a picture that makes you genuinely feel something and it is done by avoiding unnessesary explanations or sentimentality. An actor's picture that gives you an opportunity to see what an art true acting really is when you gather an intelligent and talented cas...( read more)
The Messenger is a limited release movie that covers a potentially difficult subject.
What becomes a good movie about the two characters starts out a cheesed up, run of the mill film that seems to try distancing itself from the audience with standard "soldier scenes." They thro...( read more)
For 10 years I have been saying that Ben Foster is a natural talent, probably the best one of his generation, and everytime he releases a film I go "maybe this is the one that puts him on the map"; they never do, but he still continues to amaze and engage me with every performance.
The Messenger is something nobody ever really thinks of. When you think of soldiers dying in Iraq and the men coming to their door to tell them that their loved one has died, most think of the grieving that the family will be doing but nobody ever thinks of "The Messenger". Someb...( read more)
Woody Harrelson (and Samantha Morton's new few extra sexy pounds) makes it worth seeing, though the movie isn't the greatest. Could be Harrelson's second Oscar nomination. Actually Foster's performance may be more praiseworthy, but his character is just unlikable. He lacks Ton...( read more)
The Messenger is a privileged glimpse into people's private pain, a drama shot with the simplicity and immediacy of a documentary. full review
This is a poignant war movie, but it's also a buddy movie with a difference, one that's both funny and bleak. full review
The Messenger knows that even if it tells a tearjerking story, it doesn't have to be a tearjerker. In fact, when a sad story tries too hard, it can be fatal. full review
I'm not sure how Morton made sense of her character's ebbs and flows, but I never doubted her. She's a mariner in uncharted seas of emotion. full review
Oren Moverman's sober and satisfying drama shows how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have created a fissure in American society. full review
Messengers with the worst possible message, they nonetheless manage to be human and alive .... In a film that itself bears sad tidings about the costs of war, that is an affirming, even an inspiring, ... full review
The Messenger, showing humanity under siege, opens wounds inflicted by the Iraq War -- not on the battlefield but in the hearts of the families of soldiers who never made it back home. full review
So bungled up with fashionable ambivalence about the Iraq War that every single behavioral detail is not just prejudicial but wrong. full review
Moverman's scripting is subdued and emotionally authentic. full review
This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "The Messenger" !
Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
All Rotten Tomatoes content is used under license from Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh, and the Tomatometer are the trademarks of Incfusion Corporation, d/b/a Rotten Tomatoes, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment, Inc.
