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The Sergeant Never Rings Twice
By Tommaso Tocci
Turning the table on the cliché of an army family receiving news of a soldier's death, I'M NOT THERE's co-writer Oren Moverman explores with the Berlinale Competition film THE MESSENGER (USA) a different perspective on the war-casualties theme, focusing on the military officers assigned to the notifications. Moverman chisels the two main characters out of classic genre types – the young introvert Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the middle-aged bossy Captain Stone (Woody Harrelson) – but the appeal lies in the estranging mood. The uneasy pair at first go over the strict rules of the job, then carry out the assignments, providing the film with a solid pace – the repeated “notification” scenes have a dialectic relationship with the characters' development, thus helping tie up the narrative strings. They also invariably end up wrong, each time making a dent in the soldiers' souls. For all the guidelines that Stone can possibly shout out, there's always the odd reaction from a family member, or the event that the rulebook doesn't contemplate.
First-time director Moverman underlines the ambivalence by using quiet and controlled shots, until a sketchy hand-held camera kicks in to follow Stone and Montgomery into the family houses. It's the “go” signal for a clash between human emotions and a faulty containment protocol, resulting in a predictable claustrophobic feeling.
As fond as he may be of this structure – at some point he even shifts in the middle of a scene, reinforcing the narrative mix-up between the two dimensions – Moverman chooses to throw it away halfway through the film to deepen his characters' male bonding. As a result, the story loses its grip, as if the forced perspective on the messengers' daily routine prevented the plot from levitating towards generic war-related topoi.
Foster's magnetic-yet-cartoonish looks in 3:10 TO YUMA develop here into a catatonic stare, suddenly capable of revealing tenderness. Unsure of his place in the world, he is drawn towards an impossible love affair, which challenges his already problematic relationship with Captain Stone. The triangulation broadens the characters' horizon, yet goes down a very traditional path. The Israeli director, who's got both a military and a journalistic background, seems to find no other option in closing the last act, thus polluting the story's premise.
Moverman has said he believes American cinema is just starting its reflection on the recent conflict, and that's almost certainly true, as far as the historical process goes.
Nonetheless, THE MESSENGER's second part ends up dealing with the same themes as other recent films, like THE HURT LOCKER. Anyone who tries to deal with this subject faces competition not just from within the movie industry: HBO has provided the deepest account of battlefield drama yet (GENERATION KILL). Perhaps Moverman should have worked harder to develop his initial, unique point of view.