Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Messenger

Seen at: Lyric Cinema Cafe, about three weeks ago

An interesting premise. A young solider back from Iraq is paired with a homefront Veteran who once served in the First Gulf War. Their assignment is to roam the Eastern U.S. serving death notifications to the families of U.S. Army servicemen killed overseas in the current War.

The word "angel" comes from the Greek word for "messenger." These are death angels, like the messengers in Job.

Too bad the story didn't really go anywhere, after a good set-up. A love story develops, but it is constrained by the issue of honor, so it remains unconsummated. It had to. In a way, this is the kind of classical "trap" that constrained movies in old Hollywood.

But I think old Hollywood would have found a clever way to make the romance in this movie work, even with all the classical constraints. As such the sterility puts a damper on the trajectory of well-defined and well-acted characters.

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