Reviews
The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“It's a humane and thoughtful movie about a parent's worst nightmare, and is unlikely to draw any better returns than it did in the US, where it opened more than 18 months ago … Not many were keen to catch The Hurt Locker either until it started picking up awards buzz. The Messenger presents a challenge, too, but hugely repays the effort. It will rate among the most sharply written and best-acted movies of the year. ”
17/06/2011
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“The Messenger could be the best of the recent dramas concerning American soldiers in the Middle East, and yet it's all set on US soil ... Of course, the subject matter is heart-rending, but the film is also remarkably funny, sparkling with gallows humour without ever being disrespectful to the soldiers or their families.”
19/06/2011
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The Los Angeles Times
Betsy Sharkey
“It would have been easy for "The Messenger" to turn into a patriotic melodrama or a hopelessly somber tragedy. It is neither. Instead, emotions are used sparingly, with the director's restraint allowing the marvelous central cast -- Foster, Harrelson and Samantha Morton -- to breathe, filling the silences with indelible characters whose humanity makes room for humor and hope as well.”
20/11/2009
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The New Yorker
David Denby
“This is a fully felt, morally alert, marvellously acted piece of work … The visits to the families are done with great delicacy, but great courage, too, and after a while we feel not like voyeurs but like participants.”
01/06/2011
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The New York Times
A. O. Scott
“[A] sober and satisfying drama … The script has been purged of melodrama, and also of the glum indie-film conventions that weigh down so many forays into local realism. Though there are a few scenes that seem more written than lived, the film as a whole is remarkably textured, with room for humor as well as anguish … [Moverman] seems able to render the psychological complexities of war and its consequences simultaneously from the inside and the outside.”
13/11/2009
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The Observer
Jason Solomons
“The film, directed by former Israeli solider Oren Moverman, has moments of dark humour along with a scepticism of the procedures, religious or military, through which death is comprehended. ”
19/06/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“Woody Harrelson was deservedly Oscar-nominated for this , but the never-better Ben Foster is every bit as good as his junior colleague … it’s a film of quietly assured dramatic clout, a strong and sober reckoning with American conscience.”
16/06/2011
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Time Out
Tom Huddleston
“[Look at the promotional info for ‘The Messenger’ and] you’d be forgiven for assuming it was another of those high-concept romantic melodramas which Hollywood churns out nowadays: forbidden passion, proletarian angst, the sexy side of post-traumatic stress. But while that synopsis is essentially accurate, it barely scratches the surface of this unpredictable, episodic, deeply resonant character piece.”
16/06/2011
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The Times
Wendy Ide
“…only now, once any buzz it once had has died to a barely audible hum, does this very intelligent, beautifully acted study of the human cost of conflict finally get a UK release. It would be a great shame if whatever backroom wrangling kept the movie shelved for so long were to cheat it of the audience it richly merits.”
17/06/2011
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“The Oscar-nominated script pursues a grimly honourable task into its grim and not always honourable byways … This is the war we are not told about — or one of the many untold wars fought in the shadow of the one we see on the television screens.”
17/06/2011
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Total Film
Neil Smith
“…a hard-hitting watch that nonetheless mines a rich vein of dark humour from a job where there are few good days at the office … Moverman tackles the emotive material with restraint while drawing excellent performances from his well-matched leads.”
23/06/2011
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Empire Magazine
Andrew Male
“The Messenger never really hangs together, but drifts with a dreamlike sadness that’s somehow suited to its characters: a broken, good-hearted film about broken, good-hearted people. ”
01/06/2011
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The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“...as the film continues, some familiar storylines begin to unfold: the tough and irreverent cynicism promised in the first act begins to be replaced by something rather sentimental: male bonding, romance, a conviction that the US army is something pretty great. Still, an intelligent and well-acted film which deserves its outing here.”
16/06/2011
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The Sunday Times
Edward Porter
“The scenes of agony created by their visits ring true and maybe say all that needs to be said. The other story lines are less powerful”
19/06/2011
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The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“…all credit to writer/director Oren Moverman for coming up with a new spin on the familiar post-'Nam tale of embittered veterans struggling to reintegrate into society … the film carefully builds to a cathartic ending and delivers an absorbing portrait of the need for human interaction. ”
18/06/2011
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