The First Movie About Iraq to Truly Move Me

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2010)

In "The Hurt Locker," director Kathryn Bigelow has created the first fictional film about the war in Iraq that has gotten into my head and stayed there. I can't account for how accurate it is in its details, but based on interviews and documentaries I've seen about soldiers' experiences in Iraq and the emotional toll it's taken on them, I believe that this film captures very well the feelings of futility and depressing waste of human life that the Iraqi conflict (or any war, for that matter) sends home with the people who are engaged in fighting it.
Jeremy Renner gives an astonishing performance, one of the best of the year, as the explosives expert whose job it is to disarm booby traps. He's one of the most tragic characters I've seen on screen in a long time. He's got so little in his life to care about that putting his life at risk on a daily basis is the only way he can feel anything. Most of the film takes place in Iraq, and the majority of it is tense and brutally suspenseful. But it's a few scenes late in the film showing Renner's character coming back to a domestic life that no longer has any place for him that will break your heart.
Grade: A