Critics fret that there is hardly any market left for American films made with adults in mind. One reason we worry is because there has been virtually zero interest in films, intelligent or otherwise, about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Films as powerful as In the Valley of Elah and The Hurt Locker together grossed less than $20 million.
The new film The Messenger probably won’t do boffo box office itself, but this time we can skip the hand-wringing. Unlike most of its predecessors, this aftermath-of-war movie really isn’t very good. Or rather, for maybe a third of its playing time the film is amazing and maybe even important. But for the other two-thirds I recommend copious amounts of popcorn to keep you company.
Let’s start with the good news. The Messenger is more or less a buddy movie (though admittedly a very idiosyncratic one) that follows the travails of Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), an emotionally and physically damaged war “hero” (the movie itself supplies the irony), and his partner, Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), as they make their rounds informing parents and spouses that their loved ones have just died in action. It’s an audacious idea for a film, and in the scenes where Stone and Will are getting their faces slapped, spit on, and cried into by the heartbroken (such as an excellent Steve Buscemi), the film is extremely moving.
The devastated parents and wives come in a variety of ages, races and economic brackets; at times the film feels like a secret roadmap of American grief.
But filmmaker Oren Moverman, himself a former Israeli soldier, has little idea of what to do with his characters when they’re not painfully reciting their “The Secretary of the Army regrets to inform you…” lines. Despite the fact that the two lead actors work well together, and that their characters mesh in an interesting way (turns out Captain Stone is jealous that his enlisted assistant is a battle-tested warrior and he isn’t), the film only works at all when both men are on screen. There’s a strange tinge of Apocalypse Now here, which for a time had me wishing that the gleaming-pated and emotionally spiky Harrelson had played Col. Kurtz instead of the preposterous Brando. Ben Foster certainly seems to be channeling Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard when his character drunkenly smashes up his own apartment.
Actually, Foster’s performance is a big part of the film’s problem. Outside of the “messenger” scenes, Foster mostly seems to be channeling other war movies rather than honest emotion. He’s gotten some good reviews for his work here, but I’d have to rate his performance a dud. The film’s main subplot, Will’s courtship of the newly-widowed Olivia (Samantha Morton), is not so much awkward, and therefore touching, as “huh”-inducing. Really, Sergeant?
Harrelson’s performance, and his character, are much more interesting. Harrelson’s peeling away of his emotionally stunted good-old-boy’s layers often strikes a nerve, but Moverman unwisely has him playing second banana.
Movie Review
Big stars struggle for laughs in wedding film You're Cordially Invited
There’s something about weddings that comedy filmmakers love. From Four Weddings and a Funeral to The Wedding Singer to Wedding Crashers to Bridesmaids and beyond, the act of two people getting married provides plenty of opportunities for conflict, mixups, and mayhem on which comedies often thrive.
So the premise of You’re Cordially Invited, in which two weddings at a small island venue are accidentally booked on the same weekend, would seem to be rife with funny situations. Jim (Will Ferrell) is the single dad of Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), while Margot (Reese Witherspoon) is the high-powered sister of Neve (Meredith Hagner). Both have a connection to the Palmetto Hotel, and both think they have secured the first Saturday in June for the wedding of their family members.
The confusion over finding out the venue has been double-booked is initially met with reason and compromise. But as the two wedding parties butt heads jockeying for position among the island’s limited resources, tempers start to flare, and both Jim and Margot start to lean toward sabotage. What’s supposed to be the happiest day of their lives for the brides turns into a nightmare for both as their loved ones try to find ways to get back at one another.
Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors, Bros), the film is heavily dependent on the talents of its two stars. The scenes in which Ferrell and Witherspoon face off are the most enjoyable, as each uses skills they’ve learned over their long careers to elevate the film. Unfortunately, Stoller seemed to put most of his effort into their scenes, as anything involving their characters’ friends and families falls flat.
Stoller actually sets up the various quirks and tensions between the two groups well, but it's the execution of the subsequent scenes that is lacking. Whether it’s the fault of the editing team or Stoller himself, the pacing of the film is way off. Some scenes are cut short before they reach a good resolution, and others are extended well past the point of being funny.
The film mostly suffers from giving too much in certain situations and not enough in others. Jenni has a mostly anonymous group of female friends, portrayed by actors who all seem to have been given instructions to act over the top at all times, a trait that is more annoying than amusing. On the other hand, the craziness that the film seems to promise with its central premise never materializes. The acts of sabotage by Jim and Margot are so tame that they can’t even be called entertaining, much less hilarious.
The performances in the film face diminishing returns the further you go down the cast list. Both Ferrell and Witherspoon are talented enough to get by on charm alone, and even if these are far from their best roles, it’s still fun to see them. Viswanathan and Hagner are both fine, but the rest of the cast is uniformly uninteresting and occasionally off-putting.
You’re Cordially Invited is a great example of past results not equaling future success. Given the good films that Ferrell, Witherspoon, and Stoller have made in the past, it should have been relatively easy for them to make a pleasant if forgettable wedding movie. Instead, it’s a mostly unfunny affair with only a few moments that rise to their talents.
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You're Cordially Invited is now streaming on Prime Video.
