The Hurt Locker

Jun 2009, Kathryn Bigelow, 131 mins

As with many solid war pictures, the acting and the directing must be near perfect. Storytellers and cinematographers need to know what feeling and persona they are trying to show the audience. There are two types of war movies, ones that work and ones that don’t. The Hurt Locker works. It works, not because it is a large, sprawling epic like Doctor Zhivago or Schindler’s List. It works because it has a certain profoundness without being pretentious. The movie allows its small arc to be large enough for support. The Hurt Locker is the story of three men, from different backgrounds and different inner personalities dealing with war. Many of the moments are so tense your fingernails will grow shorter by the minute.

Jeremy Renner leads the superb cast in Kathryn Bigelow’s shockingly surprising action movie. Renner is one of those actors who sneaks up on you. His next-door charm hides a dark strength not seen in a war film of this generation. He’s gone a long way from picking his nose in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip. As the bomb squad’s Staff Sergeant, Renner is a menace. A man who will, without a care in the world, attempt to defuse road side bombs strong enough to destroy a city block. Anthony Mackie gives a solid, if somewhat uneven performance in a supporting role.

There is something relaxing about walking into a universally well reviewed movie like The Hurt Locker, there is the feel that your ten bucks will not be wasted, that the final act will be as good as the first two, and the confidence that any twist will not involve a hidden personality in our lead. The Hurt Locker stayed solid throughout, though not a classic by any means, a good movie about war that does not leave you exhausted or sad. It leaves you feeling just the way you wanted it to, entertained.