I'm not sure if co-writing scripts with queer directors Todd Haynes and Ira Sachs ( for I'm Not There and Married Life, respectively ) has given Oren Moverman a fuller understanding of the male psyche, but it sure hasn't hurt.His directorial debut, The Messenger, which he has again written in collaboration ( this time with Alessandro Camon ) is ostensibly the story of two mismatched Army soldiers charged with the thankless job of delivering the news of fallen soldiers to loved ones.
But as the film progresses what emerges is something much more than just a movie about the terrible effects of war on those left behind—though that would certainly be enough for a movie to deal with ( and this one handles these scenes beautifully ) . Moverman's debut gives us that and adds a complex portrait of two individuals who find each other at an important juncture in their lives and against the odds build a deep friendship. The Messenger is a sobering drama that at its core is a heterosexual love story between two men. To be clear, there's no homoerotic undercurrent here but it's a love story of opposites falling for each other, nevertheless.
Ben Foster plays Will Montgomery, a wounded combat vet who has just returned stateside after nearly dying in Iraq. With three months to go he's assigned to the U.S. Army's Casualty Notification Service and paired with Tony Stone ( Woody Harrelson ) , who's been at the desperately awful job too long. In order to wall himself off emotionally, Tony follows the rule book—no touching the survivors, no softening of the news in order to give hope, etc. And Tony's also an annoying hedonist whose know-it-all, world-weary monologues barely camouflage his loner status. Will, haunted and angered by his experience, just wants to get the damn job over with and, gritting his teeth, jumps into the horrible assignment.
The scenes in which the two men deliver their fateful edicts—like door-to-door angels of death—are heart-wrenching; they deliver an emotional wallop each time that is harder and harder to bear during the course of the film. Steve Buscemi, perhaps the screen's most reliable character actor, delivers a memorable portrait of the father of a fallen soldier who lashes out at the two and later returns to apologize.
But it is Samantha Morton, as Olivia, who gets to Will—mainly because her reaction is unexpected and out of sorts with what he has come to expect. Against his better judgment and the advice of Tony—with whom he is slowly and surprisingly building a friendship—Will finds reasons to meet up with Olivia, and a tentative relationship begins.
Moverman and Camon's script is filled with great character details and Moverman has cast his movie with actors who embody their roles and register often in just a line of dialogue or two. He has drawn from Harrelson a tremendous performance. Harrelson's stoner, crazy-as-a-loon parts are usually the ones I remember him from ( Natural Born Killers, Wag the Dog, 2012, etc. ) but when I look over his resume it's his lesser-known portrayals that jump out ( such as the affected gay dandy in The Walker, the bitter drunken tyrant in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio ) . His work here as the tortured, lonely Tony is an outstanding addition to that gallery.
Foster first came to my attention ( and, I'm sure, that of a lot of other gay male moviegoers ) when he played the strapping winged mutant Angel in X Men: The Last Stand, who rejects the serum that will strip him of his powers and, instead, flies out over the crowd, declaring himself proud to be a mutant ( read: gay ) . He then registered in the homoerotic 3:10 to Yuma, where his insane devotion to Russell Crowe bordered on the, well, homoerotic and he played a great Renfield-like character in the vampire flick 30 Days of Night. The tightly wound actor ( both physically and psychologically ) brings a quiet intensity to his Will Montgomery but adds surprising shades throughout the movie ( a laugh when least expected, etc. ) . It's one of those roles that put actors in a new, higher profile category ( like say, Ryan Gosling's turn in Half Nelson ) and hopefully will do the same for Foster.
Filled with unexpected character twists to offset its intense emotionalism, The Messenger is a rewarding indie that's sure to also elevate Moverman's profile. Don't be surprised if it gets bandied about during awards season.
Not satisfied with taking out most of the world in previous outings, director-writer Roland Emmerich goes for the full enchilada in 2012, a doomsday thriller that's an exquisite example of disaster porn. Surely there is no other genre ( well, perhaps camp ) that is as satisfyingly junky and fun than the disaster genre. And as the modern-day disaster flick has aged, technology has kept it a go-to genre for audiences who love nothing more than seeing entire cities washed away by floods; flattened by earthquakes and asteroids; spewed over by raging volcanoes; or encased in winter's icy death grip by subzero weather.
John Cusack ( as a doomsday novelist moonlighting as a chauffeur to a Russian billionaire—really! ) heads an improbable assemblage of varying talents ( Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, et al. ) playing an improbable assemblage of characters who engage in one of movie audience's favorite games—"Who will survive?" As various characters plunge to their deaths or cling tenaciously to life during the intermittent spectacular set pieces, Chiwitel Ejiofor ( who played the gay drag queen in Kinky Boots ) pleads for humanity while character actor Oliver Platt, as the meanie realist, argues to let the unlucky shove off the mortal coil. Gay characters, as usual for the genre, are nonexistent ( although I got a distinct homo vibe from a Chinese construction worker ) .
This film—the end-of-the-world movie to end 'em all—turns out to be a sort of cross between the sci-fi camptacular When Worlds Collide and every previous Emmerich movie. At two and a half hours it's too long but provides enough guilty pleasures to balance its waterlogged, phony emotionalism.
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