The Hurt Locker [2008]

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written by: Mark Boal
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly

The Hurt Locker has been receiving lavish praises from the best of critics and it leads me to this question, "Why?". That's not to say this isn't a good film. It is. It succeeds in dramatizing the lives of bomb disarming experts in Iraq, has many suspenseful moments and gives the viewers a glimpse into the off-duty lives of these men. Having said that, where's the plot? If meandering from one bomb detonation to the next is considered a plot then this has it in spades. I understand this is more about characters but I don't think you have to necessarily fore go an interesting, structured plot for that. It baffles me when a movie veers away from the typical storytelling conventions and is lapped up by the critics for this, no matter how pointless the end result is. To sit through almost 2 hours of this for the only revelation any intelligent member of the audience would already have established early in the story (SPOILER ALERT: The lead protagonist is an adrenalin junkie) is awfully insulting.