I Make Movie Review-The Hurt Locker

Every war gets at least one great madness-of-combat movie, it would seem-Saving Private Ryan for WWII, Apocalypse Now for 'Nam. And now, for the Iraq War, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's courageous, raw, riveting portrait of a trio of US bomb specialists stationed in Kuwait in 2004, back when the war was not only young but still officially occurring. ("Mission: Accomplished?") If you're going in looking for Spielbergian grandeur, battle speeches, and the like, keep looking. The makers of this blood-boiler understand that this is a war unlike any other-and thus deserves a film style all its own. Following her three main characters-James (Jeremy Renner), Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Eldrige (Brian Geraghty)-on a series of missions to detonate this or defuse that, Bigelow skimps on music, puts her camera in close, and lets the action play out. We learn from the jarring opening scene to expect the unexpected-important characters, sympathetic characters, good ones, bad ones-all could be fodder for gun or grenade at any given moment. These characters are on constantly shifting ground-laughing one moment, ducking for cover the next. By playing keenly on our sense of uncertainty, Bigelow gives us a cathartic glimpse of what the horror of war most feel like. Each scene is a mini-masterpiece, building character while ratcheting up the tension at the same time. It's a feat very few could pull off, but Mark Boal's incisive script-shepherded beautifully to the screen by Bigelow-manages to make it look easy. In a nail-biter of a shootout between US snipers and Jihad gunners, we finally have a battle scene to match Private Ryan's D-Day opener for sheer grit and you-are-there intensity. Cameraman Barry Ackroyd, composer Marco Beltrami, and editor Chris Innis work in seamless tandem to vividly capture the tricks war plays-on time, on memory, on behavior. But in a film featuring only three major characters, good acting is the glue that's gotta put whole the foundation together. Luckily, the lead trio scores a home-run on all accounts. Mackie underplays effectively as a noble, sober veteran, and Geraghty gives a tender turn as a reluctant newbie. But in the end, it's Renner's show. In a year where Big Star Turns-from Christian Bale to J-Depp and beyond-have fizzled, Renner turns in the firecracker of a performance we've been waiting for all year. His Sgt. James is a cocky, wacked-out thrill seeker with a smartass smirk and an itchy trigger finger. But Renner digs deep, slowly exposes his characters bruised heart, and paints a harrowing portrait of a man in desperate need of attention-a man who's dammed up genuine emotion and replaced it with ego and unadorned id in order to live with himself. Renner and "winner" (Oscar?) rhyme for a reason. It's a thought-provoking, well-crafted thrill ride-a ride whose wheels occasionally fall off, especially in the overstuffed, ending-after-multiple-ending finale. But it's still a knockout of a movie, made by a director who chooses not to jam opinions or easy answers down your throat. Instead, Bigelow tells her story, and invites you to listen. You really should. A-.