The Hurt Locker

How do you solve a problem like war? How do you solve a problem like making a movie about war? Somehow, Hollywood has not been able to crack that nut, especially in terms of financial success. Granted, a majority of the recent Iraq War movies, such as Rendition or In The Valley of Elah, aren't great (the latter features a great performance from Tommy Lee Jones, and nothing else). Still, none of these movies make money, which has not a thing to do with a movie's quality. If the world was just, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen wouldn't have made over 400 million dollars, and The Hurt Locker wouldn't have made only 15 million.

Ah, but, such is life. Despite its incredibly low box-office take, The Hurt Locker, which is not only one of the very best films of 2009, but is also a brilliant wartime film and an uncommonly tense character study, is getting a lot of awards buzz. The film is up for a few Golden Globes (and, as of the time I write this, it hasn't won anything yet, but who knows?), it's won countless critics' awards, and remains one of the highest-rated films of the year. With any luck, and a lot of forcing, regular people will watch The Hurt Locker and accept it for what it is: a positionless war movie.

Yes, it could be argued that the movie is against war, but not specifically the Iraq War. There is no mention of the political state of things in 2004 (the year in which the movie is set), there is no mention of President George W. Bush, there is no mention of anything remotely left- or right-wing. Arguably, the movie is against war, but not this war. The plot, such as it is, goes like this: a trio of soldiers work as a bomb-defusing unit in Baghdad. The leader of the group, Staff Sergeant James (Jeremy Renner) is new to the company of men, thanks to the death of the previous Staff Sergeant (Guy Pearce, one of a few well-known actors who shows up for a handful of minutes) during a not-so-routine bomb defusing. James is extremely skilled and experienced (he humbly tells a superior officer that he has defused nearly 900 bombs), but he is also dangerous. As is hinted in the opening epigram, James is addicted to the tension of war. At the very least, he is an adrenaline junkie. Unfortunately for the two Specialists who flank him (Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty), it means they're always in the line of fire.

The story is simple, as screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow use it as a place on which to hang seven bravura action sequences of varying length and breadth. Not all of the setpieces involve defusing bombs (the shootout that occurs midway through has no bombs at all), but those that do are unrelentingly and unremittingly intense. Alongside Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker is not only one of the tensest movies of this year, but of the last four or five. Though this movie is easily and appropriately classified as action, it's worth noting the irony here as opposed to something like the second Transformers movie: here's a film where the characters want NOTHING to explode.

Even on repeat viewings, The Hurt Locker is a strong and breathless experience. What works here is that the opening sequence establishes how dangerous the world of a bomb-defusing unit is: we open on Guy Pearce, a relatively familiar face. 10 minutes later, he's gone and replaced with Jeremy Renner, a not-so-familiar face. Who's to say that he doesn't die 10 minutes after being introduced? Thankfully, Renner stays with us, as the gung-ho, man's man lead. Renner has appeared in other films and TV shows, but here is his best and most understated performance. Even when he lets out a bit of emotion, it's appropriately annoyed; he rarely raises his voice or his temper, but when someone chooses to interrupt him while he works on a bomb, he's likely to lash out.

Though much deserved praise has been heaped upon Renner's performance (which missed out on a Globes nod, a befuddling error), don't forget Mackie and Geraghty, the two supporting players. Mackie is the straight man here, trying to rein in Renner's wild man James, but does so with ease and maturity. Geraghty has more to play with here, as his character arc is established from the opening sequence, when he flinches at the worst possible moment. His scenes with a military shrink who doesn't know from a battlefield (Christian Camargo) are short but subtly moving to watch.

It's rare that a movie that only has about 20 minutes that doesn't feature tense action is so well-structured, so deeply alive. And yet, here is The Hurt Locker, a smoothly directed, yet jittery and real story, a movie that just about never makes a mistake (I feel like the monologue Renner has in front of his son is a bit pat in the writing). The performances are vibrant and well-thought-through, the technical aspects are perfect, and the sequences are every bit as intense as the critical hyperbole states. If you have not seen this movie, go to Netflix, and get it. Buy it, sight unseen. But see it.