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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Steve Rose

The Messenger review – so many subplots, so little resolution

He sees dead people … Robert Sheehan as Jack in The Messenger
He sees dead people … Robert Sheehan as Jack in The Messenger Photograph: PR

Jack (Robert Sheehan) sees dead people, and they won’t bloody leave him alone. They’re always pestering him to pass on messages to the living – or could he just be delusional? This sombre drama clouds that issue with an excess of subplots, many of which go frustratingly unresolved. There’s Jack’s traumatic childhood, his relationship with his sister (Lily Cole), and a hokey plot involving a dead reporter and his TV-star wife – all told in a slow, fragmented manner that becomes frustrating rather than mystifying. Sheehan’s crazed temperament and beatific face sustain the ambiguity when little else does.

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