'The Messenger': The ravages at home of a faraway war

When your assignment is to inform next of kin that someone has died at the front, there's no way to predict how the news will be received.

A wife may be so stunned that she'll take pity on officers of the Casualty Notification Office. A father may burst into a spitting rage, literally blaming the messengers for the bad news. A lover may guess why they're there before a word is spoken.

First-time director Oren Moverman's gripping new drama, "The Messenger," dares to keep its focus on the variety of responses to disaster. This includes the messengers, who are not encouraged to become emotionally involved with the people they inform.

It happens, of course. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is warned not to react by his partner, Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), but he nearly gets into a fight with a distraught father (Steve Buscemi).

Stung by an old girlfriend (Jena Malone) who marries someone else, and confronted by the spacey responses of the newly widowed Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton), Montgomery drifts into a relationship with her. It's too soon for either of them, yet their tenderness with each other becomes the movie's emotional core.

Also driving the story is the partnership between the thoughtful Montgomery and the isolated Stone. While they're an unlikely pair, the actors make something resonant of their guilty secrets and gradual bonding.

Although the script could be about any war, "The Messenger" is specifically about the Iraq war. Montgomery is an Iraq veteran, sidelined because of a minor injury that lands him in the Casualty Notification Office, while Stone is a career soldier. Neither is exactly happy in his work, but Harrelson and Foster artfully demonstrate why they find themselves so committed to the job.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com