Opening Friday: Ben Foster In The Messenger!

Ben Foster gives another remarkable performance in The Messenger (opening Friday), as Will Montgomery, an angry, injured, decorated army officer, back from Iraq with three months to serve, who is given the unenviable assignment of notifying families that their loved ones have been killed. This is made even more difficult by being paired with a real prick of an officer (Woody Harrelson). Director Oren Moverman's searing, thoughtful film includes almost unbearably upsetting moments of families reactions to this unimaginable news -- played heartbreakingly by such actors as Steve Buscemi and Samantha Morton (who Will feels some strange connection to). It's interesting that some of the best films about war are about the difficult reentry to normal life. Movies like The Messenger also give us the opportunity to watch fine actors really rise to the occasion to show the psychic pain any insurgence causes.