Alternate Best Actor 2009: Ben Foster in The Messenger

Ben Foster did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying SSG Will Montgomery in The Messenger. 

The Messenger follows a recently returned Iraq war veteran assigned to a casualty notification team. 

Ben Foster stars in one of his better films where he is the lead, which unfortunately is a bit too rare, as the returned vet, who we open with as he is undergoing recovery from having been injured in Iraq, though he is very much alive and physically able. Foster is innately a performer who can allude to much without saying much because he has that intensity which is almost always an asset to his performances. As Will that is a great asset as the moment we see Foster, his eyes, not even considering the wound, denote someone who has been through a great deal. The character though as we see it stands firm in himself and is a soldier through and through. Foster presents this clash effectively as the man who has a lot of chaos going on beneath the surface, and who keeps a straight face while doing so. Foster creates the sense of the man just keeping it inside and going about it as he does. We see this all the more quickly, as he meets up with his old flame Kelly (Jena Malone), where they have sex and reconnect despite the fact that she has moved on to another man. Foster's performance in these scenes again denotes the surface against the truth within, as he delivers his lines with enough of a sense of accommodation as he just goes along with her choices and also his choices of the two not being together. Meanwhile though on the just underlying accentuates there is some sardonic energy, and also some hurt even as he smiles in his jests against the man she is going to marry soon. 

The film shifts into Will's professional story as he is teamed up with a career Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), to perform the terrible duty of informing the loved ones of recently deceased soldiers. This is where the film is really the most successful and most powerful. And Foster's performance is excellent in these scenes and is highlighted within his work as a performer. He's great even in the scene where Stone takes the lead for the first one, and Foster's internalized sense of anxiety at the severity of the situation is powerful in itself, creating such a sense of discomfort and the reactionary empathy of the man seeing the grief. In the second one with a father who becomes hostile at the news, Foster is amazing in the scene by portraying the strict front of the soldier just trying to deliver the news as professionally as possible, not completely without care, but also cold in the sense of still just trying to follow the procedure as set out by the military. Foster though shows subtly in each moment the real heartbreak going on through Will's mind but is holding it all together best he can as it is going on. Every one of these moments is a standout in the film and just incredibly moving in just how blunt the moments are of painful grief. Foster along with Harrelson is tremendous in showing the real severity of every single message that must be relayed, and Foster does terrific work in showing the moments of Will attempting to show more empathy when he can. Making a natural progression to a man just trying to represent his genuine care as best as he can. 

Re-watching the film again after many years, I think my feelings have remained similar where the notification scenes are great, but the rest of the film gets a little rambly at times even somewhat cliched at the very least in conception. One such instance of this is when Will becomes involved with one of the women he informed of her husband's death, Olivia (Samantha Morton), who was a bit oddly accommodating when hearing the news. This progression is actually fairly obvious however what does make it work though is through the performances of Foster and Morton. They are both on point consistently in creating this low-key sense of solace they find between each other, and Foster moving on from his girlfriend and trying to find any connection with someone else. He is terrific in the moments of quietly revealing a bit more of himself as he tells her more of the truth about what is going on within him. And they manage not to make it into an obvious romance either in terms of lust or love. Rather what they do manage to do in each of their scenes together is create this sense of understanding through two people who have been through trauma. In conception, it could've faltered, but it works thanks to Foster and Morton. They manage to create honesty within a cliched situation, and in doing alleviate the cliché in a way by making two actual people in this situation. 

Where I find the film to be most rambling though are the scenes with Tony, as they go out drinking and just get into various situations fueled by drink, including going into Olivia's wedding to make a bit of a ruckus. I'll say these scenes do fall a bit more overtly into Indie cliché and often are pretty repetitive. Foster is consistently good in these scenes to be sure, oftentimes just kind of uncomfortable in the wake of Tony's antics as someone who truly has no idea how to deal with the trauma of his job. Foster though is more than decent as the facilitating and somewhat conflicting sidekick often in the situation. Even in the big wedding scene, which I might hate at a concept level, Foster certainly delivers on his end of playing what the man has been hiding away in full view in a bit of mania. More powerful in this regard, and more naturally realized, is when Will reveals what really caused his injuries in war, which was accidentally putting a friend in harm's way. Foster is great in this scene in truly revealing all the vulnerability of the man, and just letting the emotions and pains out in the moment. He naturally goes from a man telling the tale to just living it again and shows the searing heartbreak that is really beneath the man's tough exterior. Although the film itself is a mix of greatness, and far from that, Foster is dialed in during every scene and gives a consistently captivating portrayal of a man trying to come to terms of the impact of war at the most basic human level.