"The Messenger" Plays Chicago Film Festival with Star Ben Foster Present on Saturday, Oct. 10

"The Messenger" played at the Chicago Film Festival on Saturday, October 10^th, and its star, Ben Foster, plus Executive Producer Nathaniel Bolotin and Director Oren Moverman were present after the film to answer questions.

The film's co-star, Woody Harrelson, who played Anthony "Tony" Stone, was not present, but his onscreen presence spoke for itself. Harrelson, whose "Zombieland" was racing up the charts for audience attendance, scores big in the acting department for his tough-but-troubled soldier turn here. The film, thematically, reminds of the John Irving novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany," as a young veteran of the Iraq War (Ben Foster) who has 3 months left to serve before his enlistment is up is assigned to accompany Officer Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) on an assignment notifying next-of-kin that their loved one has been killed in action.

The always-interesting Foster provides the emotional center of the film. Foster, a native of Fairfield, Iowa usually plays a psychotic presence, as in his role as Mars Krepcheck in the film "Hostage" opposite Bruce Willis, or as the bi-sexual red-haired Russell Corwin in 22 episodes of "Six Feet Under," where he played one of Claire's artist friend.s This time out, Foster gets to be "the good guy" who is determined to show some empathy to the suffering families he visits and becomes overly attached to one particular widow, Olivia Pitterson, portrayed by Samantha Morton.

Morton has twice been nominated for Oscars, once for Best Supporting Actress opposite Sean Penn in "Sweet and Lowdown" in 2000 and once for Best Actress for the film "In America" in 2004. She also won a Saturn for Best Supporting Actress in the film "Minority Report," in which she played Agatha, one of the muses floating in the pool. Also in "The Messenger,", although uncredited, is veteran character actor Steve Buscemi ("Fargo"), who plays Del Martin, one of the fathers who is notified of his son's death and does not take it well. Merritt Wever, who plays Zoey Barkow on Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" and had small roles in "Michael Clayton" and "Into the Wild" is also cast in a minor part as Lara, a girl that Tony Stone attempts to fix his young friend up with.

The film depicts the angst suffered by veterans returning from war who do not view themselves as heroes, just as survivors. There is also the familiar girl-left-behind who opts to marry the boy back home. In this case, Jena Malone plays the ex-girlfriend, and Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) reveals that he cut her loose before going to war, so that she would be a free agent. One of the movie's best sequences has Will and his superior officer, Anthony "Tony" Stone (Harrelson) crashing the engagement party of the couple, completely disheveled from a run-in with the locals and completely inebriated. Then, too, there is Woody Harrelson's character's regret that he never got shot at during his stint in Operation Desert Storm.

The questions from the audience that followed the film were very complimentary of the universally fine performances (one viewer called them "brilliant across the board") and also inquired about the lengthy kitchen scene between Foster and Morton, a scene that Director Moverman said ran 9 and one-half minutes in a single take and was shot from only one angle, which he admitted was risky.

Q: "How hard was it to create the scene with Samantha Morton in the kitchen?"

A: (From Oren Moverman) "There was no rehearsal. The scene is what you see. There was no rehearsal at all."
Ben Foster, who is asked to dance with the bereaved widow, alone in the silent kitchen, said, "Man, that's the drug. To dance with Sam Morton is a dream for an actor. I have an actor crush on Sam. Athletes have a dream of playing with people better than them. There wasn't a single person on set who didn't fall in love with Sam. She had just given birth 6 months before the film and she was breastfeeding when off-camera. When we go to the movies, we're all looking for recognition. 'They feel like I feel.' That's the drug. It was a gift to be able to dance with Sam, to have a director who let us improvise." Producer Nathaniel Bolotin, (one of 13 people listed as producers: 8 "executive" producers, 4 regular "producers" and 1 "line" producer) said, "The day we shot that scene, everyone gathered around the monitors. There was nail-biting tension. It moved us all the day that the kitchen scene happened. We felt like we were all committed."

Q: "Some of the improvisation and the way it is shot remind of John Cassavetes' films. Was Cassavetes an influence?" (to Director Moverman)

A: "To me, it felt obscene to go into these very important spaces and then say, "Cut!" I said, 'Let's shoot the kitchen scene hand-held. The day we shot it, there was only the cameraman, the actors and the focus-pullers. We didn't do any rehearsal for this movie. It was not appropriate for this level of actors. Also, Woody and Ben had never met the people who were playing the next-of-kin to be notified. As for influences, we definitely thought about the work of directors from the '70s, like Hal Ashby and Robert Altman, who used zoom lenses."

Q: "What kind of preparation did you do for the film?" (to Ben Foster)

A: "Oren created a strategy of letting everyone bond together. We took a field trip to Walter Reed Army Hospital and visited the amputee ward. We spent time with soldiers and asked questions. And, also, we had the Head of Casualty Notification, Lt. Col. Paul Seiner, who was in charge of notification for war casualties for the Army for 2 years, on set every day to make sure that everything was done right."

Q: (To Director Moverman) "What would you have added, if time and money were not considerations?

A: (to laughter) "About 35 minutes." Then, he added, "I wouldn't want to put anything else on the DVD release."

Q: "Explain the dedications at the end?"

A: "Everyone who worked on the film was asked to dedicate it to someone they had lost who was important to them. It didn't have to be someone killed in a war conflict, just someone important to them.," said Director Moverman.

Q: "Why is the notification of the Flannigan family in a grocery store?"

A: "That was the only one in the movie based on a real notification. It happened in the Marines. It really was based on something that happened. There was also an incident that was not portrayed in the film where a female schoolteacher needed to be notified that her husband had been killed, so the Army called her Principal and asked the Principal of the School to help to get her away from her classroom and outside the building. When the notifying officers finished telling her of her husband's death, she looked up and every single student in the school was watching her receive the news. After that, the Army decided that it's important not to do it (notification of next-of-kin) in public."

One line of dialogue in the film reflects this real-life incident. As the duo approaches a home opposite a schoolyard and every eye turns to watch what is going to happen next, Harrelson says, to his young charge, "It could be worse. It could be Christmas." Harrelson also got to deliver this line of advice to his new assistant, "We walk into these people's lives and we don't know shit. Up until Vietnam, notification was done by telegram. Reach down in your pants, grab a double handful of balls, and do it right." Following that advice, the seemingly cold-blooded Harrelson tells Foster's character never to touch the NOK (next-of-kin). The only exception he seems to be willing to make is "if the guy is having a heart attack."

The film's script , co-written by Director Moverman and Allesandro Camon, has already been honored with a Silver Berlin Bear for Best Screenplay. Director Moverman was also nominated for a Golden Bear, but did not win. The film won a Peace Film Award for Oren Moverman. Prior to Moverman taking over the helming of the project, it had been through 3 potential directors, including the late great Sydney Pollack and Ben Affleck.

The film may well earn nominations at Oscar time for the strong performances of all the principals, for its script, and for Oren Moverman's collaborative directing which allowed and encouraged improvisation from this talented cast of actors, all of whom did an outstanding job.