Well acted. Heavy handed.

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2010)

Using the Academy's past choices as context, I understand why The Hurt Locker is the front runner nominee for Best Picture.
Overall, it is well acted. The characters are interesting. The dialog is well written and believable. The cinematography and "visual fabric" of the film are well done.
The story is conventional. The message is cliché and heavy handed. To be fair, I saw The Red Badge of Courage in high school, and every war movie I have seen since, with the possible exception of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, have been some version of that movie. War is bad, and incredibly wasteful on every level. I get it. Perhaps my view is skewed because I didn't experience war until later in life; but I find this movie makes the same mistakes about trivializing that which is truly distasteful to Soldiers (the mundane and random), and greatly exaggerates that which is tolerable (the horrible).
I did enjoy the scene in the stateside supermarket. It's probably the closest the story gets to making a point, though I'm not sure if that was done on purpose or if the writer simply observed a phenomena and the Director got lucky shooting it right .
It is enjoyable, but not quite as good as you would hope; or it could have been.
I preferred "Up"...