Ben Foster Shines in The Messenger

AO Scott gives Oren Movermen (co-writer on the brilliant Todd Haynes film I’m Not There) props for having delivered a “sober and satisfying” drama. The actors, Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster are also praised:

Mr. Harrelson, using his natural affability as a mask for his character’s pain and insecurity, has never been better. And with this performance Mr. Foster, having shown intriguing promise in “Alpha Dog” and “3:10 to Yuma,” places himself in the first rank of young American screen actors. Their work is well supported by Jena Malone, as Will’s former girlfriend, and especially by Samantha Morton, playing a soldier’s widow with whom he becomes shyly and half-guiltily infatuated.

And the New Yorker’s David Denby on Foster:

Ben Foster (from “3:10 to Yuma” and the HBO series “Six Feet Under”) holds himself back. But this twenty-nine-year-old actor, with his melancholy blue eyes and long jaw, may be one of the great spellbinders of his generation. When he’s silent, his face is entirely alive; his eyes seem to be looking inward and outward at the same time. It turns out that there’s a lot churning around inside Will. At the beginning of the movie, his girlfriend goes to bed with him and then returns to the man she has decided, in his absence, to marry. And the Sergeant has battlefield griefs of his own, which remain hidden for a long time. Alone in his room, he goes through violent convulsions, throwing his body around in rage, which Foster turns into prolonged, wordless arias. By degrees, he and the filmmakers ease this man back into life. Tony may be unable to survive outside the Army, but Will is by nature a civilian. He begins responding to people, talking, opening himself up to feelings. Tony, he realizes, is a damaged man but means him no harm, and they become quarrelling, roistering friends. The Captain starts drinking again, and the booze and the men’s own kind of mad horseplay get them through the job. Along the way, “The Messenger” offers one of the most shrewdly perceptive portraits of military men to have appeared in American movies since such classics as “From Here to Eternity” and “The Last Detail.”

That is enough to put Foster on the Contender Tracker – he’s running for Lead Actor right now in an incredibly tight category. There are already others ready to take the slot of any of the current contenders. Harrelson is in supporting and that might give a little more wiggle room.