This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Since the early 50's war movies have set a precedence of being filled with the war itself, action and brutality. Here we have a war film completely opposite, the war at home of the families left behind when a soldier dies. Oren Moverman has delivered a punch to the gut with the movie that is driven from the notification process to families. A story strongly set up by Ben Foster's character Montgomery, a injured war hero who has only 3 months left on his tenure. He assigned to the Notification detail and has zero experience in how to grieve much less deal. Tremendous performances by Foster, Harrelson and Morton accompany a strong, well written script and musical score. This film will make any person acknowledge the truth and sacrifice of every soldier. Solid, well done film. 7/10

The movie is long. It repeats too much. To see how it affects the character, you do not need to see it so many times. It is a film that if it were shorter would win many points.The actors are very good, but Harrelson is a very good actor, that is not discovering anything new.At least, do not waste time in sex, that's to be grateful. It does well. No need to see what to know what will happen.Photography does not help much. It is not a pretty photograph. It is austere without more.The director, directs characters, but does not see that there is a film left. The plans are basic. It does not place the camera well. He does not know how to narrate with her. It does not bore but it stagnates.It lets itself be seen.

Having read the reviews here and the DVD cover, I rented it a few days ago and watched it last night.I expected more emotional depth than what was displayed here, the film is decently acted by the stars but the characters I found mostly unlikeable with the exception of Samantha Morton's. I found Woody Harrelson's character totally shallow and his idea of investing his job with no emotion whatsoever is ridiculous. If this is factual then the US Army needs to rethink its approach. Rather than sending these stone faced men to notify the families and let them know they will later by visited by another officer who will help them through it, they should send grief counselling officers instead. To notify families in such a detached and wooden fashion is in poor taste when they are grief stricken and need a more sympathetic approach.Also the fact that a Casualty notification officer would be thrown in with no training at all, and just given a short briefing for such an important role is also beyond belief. If he screws it up this will reflect very badly on the US Army ! I found the acting of Steve Buscemi in the initial scene where he is notified of his sons death totally over the top and contrived.The best scene in the entire movie by far is the wonderfully acted sequence in which Ben Foster tries to get it on with Samantha Morton and she tells him she can't, and proceeds to tell him how she felt about her husband when they first met and how her feelings towards him changed and how he was changed by the war etc. The developing relationship Between Ben Foster & Samantha Morton was really the only thing that kept me watching up until the end and I must admit I was relieved to see the final credit roll.If asked I would recommend it only if you have nothing better to do or watch, although this film was well acted it was definitely not worth the high praise many here have heaped on it.I would give it 6/10 at best.

The beautiful thing about "The Messenger" is that it doesn't come across as a heavy handed message about the Iraq War. The potential for that was there in the plot. Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play army officers who are assigned to the duty of informing families of the death of loved ones in Iraq. It's emotionally moving to watch the varied reactions of the different families, who respond with anger, with grief, with tears and sometimes with stoic resignation. But for the most part the movie doesn't revolve around that. It revolves around the characters played by Harrelson and Foster.Harrelson is the veteran. His Captain Tony Stone has been doing this for a while, and he has it down to an art form - a little cold perhaps, but very professional, as befits an officer. Stone is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 - the first (and very short) was against Iraq, and you get the sense that he's burdened with guilt about having been in such a relatively bloodless war. Foster on the other hand is the new recruit to this line of work. His Sargeant Will Montgomery is a veteran of the real Iraq War - and he's seen blood, including a friend being blown up in front of him. As he says at one point to Stone in frustration, "I've been in firefights that lasted longer than your whole damn war." Perhaps that experience makes him more compassionate, less willing to do everything by the book, and it leads to him developing a bond with the widow to whom he brought the news of her husband's death.I wouldn't call this a plot-driven movie. The plot takes second place to the real struggles of the characters involved, and Harrelson and Foster do a very fine job of portraying those struggles. (8/10)