That's where The Mechanic fails miserably, presenting Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) as a crack assassin who can kill his targets without leaving a trace, or even - as we learn later - to implicate third parties in the crime. Impressive. Except as we watch Bishop blunder his way through target after target, he's clearly amateurish, leaving fingerprints and clues at every crime scene, never having a backup plan if something goes wrong and relying on luck to escape afterwards.

There's an predictable father/son relationship between Bishop and his "handler" Harry (Donald Sutherland) which is reinforced by Harry complaining to Bishop about his ne'er-do-well son Steve (Ben Foster). In one particularly odd scene, Bishop offers parenting advice to Harry, even though he prides himself on being disconnected from his own emotions. Through an obvious plot machination, Bishop ends up an unwilling mentor to Steve, a dangerous thug with no sense of elegance or finesse.

Ultimately, the glue that makes The Mechanic stick together is action film cliches. From the opening scene where we see a drug lord getting off his private jet in Columbia, it's hoary action cliches that fuel the story. Problem is, it's ultimately boring and even Statham's usually entertaining fight sequences are muted and incomprehensibly filmed, leaving us to pay too much attention to the weak plot. This just isn't a good film.

That's the question underlying The Messenger, a stark film that follows decorated and troubled Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) as he joins with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) on this detail. "Captain Stone will show you the ropes, he's the expert" Colonel Stuart Dorsett (Eamonn Walker) promises, but what kind of man would be an expert in this task?

Stone explains the importance of clarity and sticking to the script but the entire process of notification is so abstracted that he doesn't talk about the people receiving their tragic news, but refers to "noks" (next of kin). There are no hugs, no gestures of sympathy, no touching at all allowed.

There are the occasional moments of wry humor to relieve the intensity of the film: their pagers play a tinny funeral dirge when there's news to be shared, and Stone delivers a amusing monologues on stopping for directions and inappropriate doorbell songs. 

Still, the power of "The Secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deepest regret..." is overwhelming, a wave of sadness that washes over both Montgomery and us, the viewer, scene after scene. The Messenger is one of the most moving films I've seen in a while, well crafted and provocative, well worth a viewing.