The Hurt Locker

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Ralph Fiennes
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow (“Strange Days”)
Written by: Mark Boal (debut)

Director Kathryn Bigelow (“Strange Days”) transports audiences into an intense sequence of wartime heroics set in Iraq in “The Hurt Locker.” In the film, SSgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) plays a hotshot solider on an Army bomb squad that is in harms way every single day on the job. Without a heavy-handed political message about the war, the characters in “Locker” are easier to relate to as we watch them put their lives on the line for the greater good. Renner is great as William, but it’s the direction of Bigelow that is the real gem here. Not only will she be the first woman since Sophia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”) to earn an Oscar nomination in 2003, she definitely has a viable chance to be the first to actually win. Along with the extreme combat situations, the film also delivers an effective message about a soldier’s addiction to danger that cuts to the heart of the deep issue of commitment to country and family.