The Messenger (2009)
This isn't at all about great movie-making, but about a great idea with two knockout performances. To see grief this way, almost first hand, and to see how these two soldiers deal with it and are personally tormented by it, is eyeopening. Whatever your view of war, or of the Iraq/Afghan wars, this is one part of the reality. To avoid it is to be willfully blindsided.
But that's it. That's a lot, but that's it. There is the buddy film aspects of the two men (which wears thin, too, fighting drinking, going fishing) and there is something like a love affair at work (which comes with too much foreshadowing), but none of this human element really works on its own. It just supports the whole.
It's a sharp, moving movie. It'll make you cry more than once, if you feel for the actors. And it'll remind you of something we all need reminding of with this much force.
This isn't at all about great movie-making, but about a great idea with two knockout performances. To see grief this way, almost first hand, and to see how these two soldiers deal with it and are personally tormented by it, is eyeopening. Whatever your view of war, or of the Iraq/Afghan wars, this is one part of the reality. To avoid it is to be willfully blindsided.
But that's it. That's a lot, but that's it. There is the buddy film aspects of the two men (which wears thin, too, fighting drinking, going fishing) and there is something like a love affair at work (which comes with too much foreshadowing), but none of this human element really works on its own. It just supports the whole.
It's a sharp, moving movie. It'll make you cry more than once, if you feel for the actors. And it'll remind you of something we all need reminding of with this much force.