The Messenger – Die letzte Nachricht (2009)

The Messenger – Die letzte Nachricht: Directed by Oren Moverman. With Ben Foster, Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker, Woody Harrelson. An American soldier struggles with an ethical dilemma when he becomes involved with a widow of a fallen officer.

“I was fortunate enough to see this at the recent NY Drama Critics showcase, where both the director (Mr. Moverman) and a co-star (Woody Harrelson) participated in after-show Qu0026amp;A. First of all, the film is superb – but the summaries Iu0026#39;ve seen so far do not do justice to what the movie is really about. Sure there are ethical dilemmas, sure there are soldiers who have returned from Iraq. But the great strength of this film is its focus on individual human beings and their reaction to humansu0026#39; most important concerns: life, death and love. Oren Moverman – accomplishing this so beautifully, accurately and subtly in a small-budget film – is to be congratulated. Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton are all magically on the same wavelength in their performances. And the writing (by Camon and Moverman) acknowledges the fact that reasonably intelligent people might be watching… people who donu0026#39;t need every little detail spelled out. Oh yes – I should mention that thereu0026#39;s a lot of humor interspersed throughout. The result of all this? The people you meet in this film will stay with you for a very long time – and youu0026#39;ll be glad for that.”