A SLICE OF WAR

Few films leave me riveted. This one did. Katherine Bigalow’s slice of life war movie doesn’t confuse itself with political commentary or take sides in the fight. This film doesn’t pretend to answer questions as to why the war is taking place, but instead allows us to walk in the shoes of Bravo Company, as they follow orders and ask themselves, “why do I choose to fight today?”

The Hurt Locker centers around a team of soldiers led by a “bomb tech,” who has the dubious job of dismantling roadside explosives (IED’s). If the team can’t send in a robot to shut down a device - which can be concealed underground, hidden in the trunk of a car, or even in a decaying human body – they send in the tech. The space-like protective suit these guys wear doesn’t ensure survival if there’s an explosion, as we learn in the first ten minutes when Bravo’s tech is killed.

He’s replaced by the rebellious and stubborn, but talented SFC William James (played seamlessly by Jeremy Renner). With over 800 devices safely dismantled, James is determined to get the job done his way. He refuses to use the robot, taking matters into his own hands and dismantling the most threatening bombs without wearing his helmet so he can “die comfortably.”

You could cut through each scene’s palpable tension as pressure builds with every mission in which Bravo’s involved. Nothing distracts from the drama in this film. Ms. Bigalow didn’t deliver an ostentatious, 2 hour music video, nor did she cast big name heavy-hitters in the main roles. With only a few beautiful shots that call attention to her exquisite direction, and two recognizable actors in supporting roles (Guy Pierce and Ralph Fiennes), the movie never shows off.

This film takes a non-compromising look at the day-to-day struggles American men experience being soldiers. Spc. Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) already seems to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, distracting himself with violent video games in his spare time and seeking counsel from a psychologist soldier. After the team survives an explosive strapped to a civilian they can’t rescue, Sgt. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) breaks down and questions the validity of his life.

While his partners air on the side of caution and follow orders, James continues to push the envelope. When a young boy he mistakes as his friend is killed to play host to a body bomb, James seeks revenge – tearing through a local house and threatening innocent citizens. He later orders his team off course of a mission to figure out who may have been responsible for a tank bombing, jeopardizing their lives and causing Eldridge to get injured. These men have wittingly signed up for a situation that gives them no control over their daily lives– and renegade James wants some.

At the end of the day, when the job for which you’ve signed up is filled with fear and uncertainty at every turn, how does one breathe easy? When soldiers normally safely confined to an office decide to take a ride into the field and get killed by IED’s, when enemies strap explosives to innocent civilians as bait and you risk losing your lives to save one; how do you keep up the fight within yourself to keep fighting the war?

Because soldiers don’t quit, these characters go on in different ways. When the sink can’t aptly wash off the blood of battle, James walks fully-clothed into the shower and lets the water turn crimson. When he calls his girlfriend back home and can’t find the words to speak, he simply hangs up. After the team nearly gets killed by the human bait bomb, Sanborn asks James how he “takes the risk” of being the bomb tech. James’ answer: “I don’t think about it.”

The purpose of the plot and the sum of the stories in The Hurt Locker don’t add up to a big blow-out finale. Every second of the movie is fraught with tension – dramatic and action-packed. Its character-driven theme peeks into the fears of the men carrying sniper rifles. It shines a light into the minds of men who dig in the sand to unveil a mess of wires about to destroy everything around them. Why do they do this? For some: duty. For a few: an adrenaline rush. Or maybe because it’s the one thing they really love to do.

The Hurt Locker is recent American filmmaking at its finest, leaving its grip on you long after you return home from the theatre. Poignant and telling, honest and raw, it’ll leave you riveted.

-Hillary Smotherman

ANOTHER SAVORY EPHRON CONCOCTION

I could spend a full day at Meryl Streep’s feet thanking her for being an actress. I could spend a subsequent day thanking her directors for convincing her to sign on and play roles so methodically that the actress just seems to melt away. With Julie & Julia, Nora Ephron brings us a delightful, feel good film - due in no small part to a fabulous cast and pitch perfect acting.

Julie & Julia tells the stories of two women, separated by space and time, who are sick and tired of their mundane lives. Julie (Amy Adams) is an average modern day New Yorker about to turn 30. After giving up writing her novel, she works a dead-end job answering phones for a government agency and longs to be more than “just a person in a cubicle.” Her refuge is in food; she comes home and cooks spectacular dinners for her husband.

How does a failed novelist/foodie escape boredom and add spice to her life? Start a blog about cooking so you can write about your true passion and be your own “publisher.” Julie takes her husband(Chris Messina)'s advice and challenges herself to cook every recipe in her idol(Julia Child)'s cookbook in one year and countdown the progress on her blog.

You can’t help rooting for Julie, whose social life beyond the cubicle is defined by cobb salad social lunches with pompous friends who demean her secretarial job and grab breadsticks out of her mouth. Adams hasn’t mis-tepped once since her star-making turn as Leonardo DiCaprio’s finance in Catch Me if You Can. Her comic vulnerability is a sheer joy to watch. She’s a relatable movie star – not intimidatingly beautiful, and brings an honesty and self-deprecating humor to every role she takes.

Ephron blesses us with a fantastic dual-plot that oscillates between following Julie’s challenge and watching Julia Child’s early struggle to become a chef. Before she pioneered American French cooking, Child was just the wife of a diplomat who pondered hat-making so that she would have something “to do.” Because she loved eating French food, why not learn how to cook it? Meryl’s Julia is the laughing stock of the Cordon Bleu in Paris before she proves herself a worthy competitor to her male G.I. classmates chopping onions faster than them and flipping pancake-like eggs over in a pan.

Julie nearly loses her job and her husband when she skips work over recipes gone wrong and throws tantrums in the kitchen. Julia gains the respect of fellow chefs and aspiring cookbook authors who ask her to sign on and help them write a French cookbook for everyday housewives. Julie begins to experience success as her blog becomes the 3^rd most popular and both women find themselves gaining acknowledgement where it’s deserved.

If not for any other reason, go see Julie & Julia to witness Streep’s 16^th attempt at Oscar. She flawlessly delivers Julia’s over-the-top voice, and with every awkward sway of the upper body to and fro as Child, Streep brings to life a woman very much at ease with herself (and her 6’2’’ frame) and a talent for something that was quite laughable in the 1950’s.

This film is strongly backed by supporting roles, including another stand-out performance by Stanley Tucci (Paul Child). Both Tucci and Messina are fantastic at playing the real doting housewives as they support their women while they embark on soul-searching journeys.

This isn’t a romantic comedy, folks. But there’s lots of love to spread around. Yes, Julie and Julia are both nurtured by loving husbands at home. But in the end, it is the love from within (yuck, I know), stemming from self-discovery and accomplishment that warms the heart here. Julia and Julia, melted nicely together like their love for butter and devotion to learning to bone a duck, show us that it’s worth your time to pursue what you love to do. Is there any message better?

-Hillary Smotherman

WELL WORTH THE HYPE

Welcome to the most inescapable film of 2009. It’s difficult for any movie to live up to the hype that accompanies a budget in excess of $300 million, much less the 12 year hiatus from directing a feature film that James Cameron took after Titanic. But Avatar satisfies in every way. It is a visually mesmerizing miracle, reaching far beyond simply filling the slot of the quintessential Christmas blockbuster and providing inspiration for your pre-teen’s next video game obsession.

If you remember the way you felt when you first experienced dinosaurs in Jurassic Park or the bullet time slow motion martial arts in the Matrix films, your mind won’t rest for 2 ½ hours of Avatar. What Cameron’s done here is take another simple narrative and illustrate it with an unimaginably inventive, digitally painted backdrop unlike anything audiences have ever seen.

The story is set in the year 2154, where US Military forces are “on the brink of war.” Scientists on Earth have found the solution to the energy crisis in a rare mineral on Pandora, a moon light years away. The problem: the richest mineral-laden portion of land on Pandora is occupied by the Na’vi – a peaceful group of blue-skinned aliens who dutifully revere the natural world and will vehemently defend it, if threatened.

Another problem: How does one mine for a mineral on a planet whose air is toxic and un-breathable to humans? Create a genetic hybrid of human and Na’vi DNA that is controlled by the human counterpart and aptly get the job done – the Avatar. In an effort to communicate and learn from the Na’vi, a group of American scientists headed by Dr. Grace Augustine (Cameron veteran Sigourney Weaver) created the Avatar. Now the military will use them to infiltrate into Na’vi society for their own reasons.

After one of the scientific team members is murdered, his twin brother (same DNA) is chosen to step in and use his Avatar as part of a last ditch effort to “find a diplomatic solution” with the Na’vi. Enter Jake – a paraplegic marine played by Aussie actor Sam Worthington (who has thankfully perfected his American dialect since last summer’s Terminator: Salvation). Colonel Miles Quaritich (embodied with menacing precision by Stephen Lang) tells Jake if he can gain the trust of the Na’vi and get them to relocate, he’ll see to it Jake gets his “real legs” back. Our renegade hero has nothing to lose, and the race is on.

What can be said of the ensuing two hours? Magic movie-making at it’s best; A dazzling Cameron affair that eclipses Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator and even Titanic. Movie audiences are used to seeing films that are almost entirely computer-generated, at this point. Cameron has labeled the technique that brings Avatars to life “performance capture,” and dare I say that every cobalt tiger-striped Na’vi, each blinking golden eye, every forehead furrow and wrinkle that matches the actor’s proves that this technique has been perfected. And Pandora is a mouth-watering, spine-tingling adventure that doesn’t disappoint - including floating mountains, monsters that resemble rhino-dinosaurs and fluorescent weeping willow trees capable of memory and communication.

Jake (of course) falls for the hopelessly beautiful Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who is ordered to teach him the ways of the Na’vi people. Neytiri tells Jake he has “a strong heart, no fear. But stupid. Ignorant. Like a child.” It naturally doesn’t take long for the two to fall in love as Jake continues to prove himself one of the most talented warriors her people have ever seen. As time ticks down and military forces are set to bulldoze Na’vi land, Quaritich asks Jake if he’s forgotten which team he’s playing for. And he has. “The strong prey on the weak, and no one does a thing,” Jake says.

Decide for yourself whether armed forces invading a territory that poses no foreseeable threat sounds familiar in today’s world. There are decisions to be made by these characters that may not be breaking narrative ground, but will make you invested in what they do. The story is one of redemption and moral choice. In the year 2154, good vs. evil is as simple as defending nature or destroying it. It’s as plain as “going up against gunships with bows and arrows.”

Go ahead and see Avatar with expectation. See it with all the uncertainty that comes along with the price of today’s $12 movie ticket. Watch with disdain as another love story is forced upon you, when what you wanted was action. Be hesitant to believe that tiger-striped Avatars are real. And then let it all melt away. Cameron waited 12 years to bring you something unique: a $300 million movie that delivers. Sit back and enjoy the hype. It’s colored in Oscar gold.


-Hillary Smotherman