The Messenger

When I saw that this movie had come out on DVD, I was really excited because I liked both the main actors in Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, and also the movie itself looked really good. It got one or two oscar nominations, one for best screenplay. Nonetheless, this movie tries to tackle and delve into the lives if CNOs. These are casualty notification officers in the U.S. Army. At the risk of leaving anyone else in the dark, Casualty Notification Officers bascially are the soldiers who go around their parts of town and deliver the bad news about the death of a loved one to their next of kin. As you can probably figure out, it's not exactly an easy subject to make a movie about or even watch. This movie basically shifts from one notification to another, and I really was brought in by the different reactions that the loved ones had. The filmmakers really did a good job in showing all these different emotions. Also there were some very, VERY good performances given by Harrelson and Foster. I know that Harrelson got nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but in watching this I was surprised that Foster didn't recieve more accalades.


There is a problem with this movie however. It may not even be a flaw, it's just something that I did not like. This movie was kind of boring. It was very good at parts, but when it let its guard down, it was really boring. I also wasn't exactly paying full attention during the whole movie, so I guess I'll have to watch the movie again. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, but for now, there is much room for improvement.

Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars