By Dan Cohen, our Santa Monica Reporter
Given the year’s succession of mediocre English language films, Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” comes as a welcome surprise. That’s because it’s superior in every respect. Its meaty 133 minutes unspools with such confidence and clarity you wonder why we don’t get more like it, and more often.
The story details the day to day trials of an army bomb squad working the streets of Baghdad. But don’t let any preconceived notions about films set in Iraq keep you away. Director Bigelow and writer Mark Boal give us material that transcends time and place. No small achievement.
A deft, concise script raises the bar from the very beginning. A new guy joins a seasoned squad of veterans a month before they’re scheduled to rotate out of the country. The new guy shows a massive disregard for safety, although he’s dismantled over 800 bombs, successfully, of course. Complications ensue. The cast, relative unknowns, effortlessly play out the several changes in mood, although Jeremy Renner, in the white hot lead, wins most of our attention.
What makes this film such a stand out? For one thing, revelations about character continue right through to the last few frames. At several points, just as the narrative verges on the trite or glib, it quickly corrects. The ending is both truthful and surprising. We never feel cheated by a storytelling shortcut, or the imperative of winding things up after a certain running time.
There’s plenty of tension, but a minimum of cringe inducing gore. Bigelow and Boal keep us mindful of death as a daily reality but hold the carnage to quick glimpses. No single shot is held longer than we need to take it in.
This relatively straight forward movie works on several levels, but without any of the overheated rhetoric that made other ambitious projects, like “No Country For Old Men,” or “There Will Be Blood,” so self conscious. I thought both of those movies, ambitious in theme, were burdened by oversized contrivances that underlined the narratives “importance.” The idiosyncrasies in “The Hurt Locker” (and there are more than a few) are so well integrated into the material that they enhance it without drawing attention to themselves.
As a director of “action” films, Bigelow has carved out a special niche for herself. You may know her from “Point Break,” the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze crime drama released in 1991. The material there, an FBI agent goes undercover to expose a gang of surfer/bank robbers, was rooted in the familiar but executed in top form. Swayze’s full bodied performance as the gang leader played well against Reeve’s straight laced cop. Her next major project, “Strange Days,” (1995) which deals with a troubled Los Angeles on the verge of the millennium is a little top heavy, but again, well acted by a large cast including Ralph Fiennes and Angela Basset. (Look for the DVDs.)
The storytelling here is very different from anything Bigelow has done before. Most of her past film and TV work has a studio gloss. “Hurt Locker” is shot and edited in a verite style that suggests an edgy eye constantly on the lookout for danger. But, when it’s called-for, the camera holds steady on seemingly casual details—details that ultimately pay off. Once again, the style has been crafted to fit the material, not the other way around.
“The Hurt Locker” is irresistibly suspenseful, but it’s also thoughtful. You’ll leave the theater with questions, but you won’t feel confused. That’s a good thing.
The distributor has wisely chosen to release this movie in several stages, or platforms, most likely in the hopes that it will be propelled by strong word of mouth. It should arrive in the next couple weeks.
