In Oren Moverman’s superb directorial debut, two US veterans take on the grimmest of duties: delivering news of the deceased to their next of kin.

For Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson, this operation is a sort of hereafter; Foster is a hero back from the current mire in Iraq, while Harrelson was a soldier during the first. Together, they brave reactions from relatives and loved ones that scale the emotional range. Still, a friendship comes out of the grief and, against procedure, Foster falls for the newly widowed Samantha Morton. Politics aside, The Messenger offers a sober, personal, and thoroughly compassionate portrait of what’s left after the postwar narcotic of anger passes.

Explore the film’s official site, read The Village Voice’s praise for and chat with Woody Harrelson, and check out an interview with Ben Foster that asks why he plays “such broken people so well.”

Stephen Colbert shaves Woody Harrelson’s head on The Colbert Report.