Movie Review: The Hurt Locker

THREE THINGS I LIKED:

1. IT REALLY IS THAT IRAQ WAR MOVIE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR — In case you hadn't heard, non-documentary films about the ongoing conflict have been as well-received at the box office as Ishtar. Nothing released until Hurt Locker, however, had that on-the-ground immediacy of Kathryn Bigelow's feature. And Mark Boal's script places its characters—and its audience—into the daily routine of a bomb-disposal unit without the usual perceived political statement of a lesser war movie that probably kept asses out of the seats in the first place.
   
2. AT LONG LAST, A DIRECTOR HAS FINALLY RECAPTURED THE GENUINE SUSPENSE OF THE OTHERWISE TIRED WIRE-CUTTING SCENARIO — Bigelow almost immediately plugs the viewer right into the danger of the duty at hand and incredibly manages to maintain a genuine sense of fear that I had almost forgotten was possible from one of the seemingly most exhausted forms of momentary danger in movies. In The Hurt Locker, instead of being exploited just for a cheap moment, the constant process of finding and deactivating an IED instead fills us with a sense of dread that carries throughout most of the film from the ground-level opening scene.
   
3. JEREMY RENNER IS READY FOR HIS CLOSEUP — I liked him enough for his terrific turn in Dahmer to actually buy it on DVD (try explaining that one when friends see it on the shelf ...), but Hurt Locker offers Renner a role that's certainly a little more, um, audience-friendly. Actually, one of the movie's most pleasant surprises is that the more recognizable members of the cast (Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse) get what essentially amount to cameos, while the cast of lesser-known talent including Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty get to steal the show. The focus on the chemistry of that trio adds more to feel of watching something more like real everyman American soldiers than just a group of actors.
   

THREE THINGS I DIDN'T:

1. BEND IT LIKE "BECKHAM" — It was inevitable, I suppose, that in attempting to develop Renner's Staff Sgt. William James, he's given a young Iraqi kid named "Beckham" to bond with. The young'un plays soccer and hawks bootlegged DVDs and ... well, I think you can guess where this is going to go.
   
2. CAMBRIDGE TO NOWHERE — Lt. Col. John Cambridge (Christian Carmago) is the therapist trying to get Geraghty's Spc. Owen Eldridge to stop thinking about dying even though James' style leads anyone to think he'll somehow get everybody involved killed. So when he passes on an invitation until the time is right, you can guess what he means.
   
3. HOME IS NOT WHERE THE HEART IS — I think it was the kite shot that felt like the warning, but when Hurt Locker follows James back to American soil to show the effect it's taking on his wife and home life the film feels like it's trying to resolve more than it can or should before the end.
   

25 WORDS OR LESS:

Makes the day-to-day defusing of roadside bombs unforgettably riveting and compelling, even if the film can't remove a few war movie clichés.