Coming across loud and clear

“The Messenger” isn’t your typical violent war movie, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t gritty.

“One of the most, if not the most, universal experience that we all share is that loved ones do go away,” says star Ben Foster, who plays an Army casualty notification officer whose gut-wrenching job it is to inform the next of kin that their loved one died at war. “You have to ask the question, ‘How do you get back to life? How do you pick up your socks in the morning?’”

The 29-year-old actor is finally leading a film after years of supporting roles, including “Six Feet Under” and “3:10 to Yuma.” But whether or not this is his breakthrough, for Foster, the glory really lies in spreading the message behind the movie.

“You make a chair and somebody says, ‘Hey, I like your chair,’ that feels good,” he says. “And if a lot of people are saying, ‘We really like your chair, it might be one of the best chairs of the year,’ it doesn’t change the chair. We made this [movie] and really put our hearts into it. I am really excited that perhaps a conversation can come out of it; we can kind of connect again as people.”