The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is almost a straight forward Army bomb squad procedure movie. The film follows three soldiers in a bomb squad unit deployed in Iraq as they disarm one IED after another, day after day after day. Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal give the film a documentary feel. The end result is not for the weak of heart. We constantly watch the three soldiers on their bomb disarming missions. Every time when we watch them, we don’t know if this may be their last one. The audience will literally recoil in their seats overwhelmed by the tension. These missions are also the strongest points in this film – vivid and extremely suspenseful. Unfortunately near the end, the script and direction get bogged down a bit by some clichéd sentimentality. It undermines the film to a certain degree, but overall Locker may still be the most realistic feature about American soldiers in Iraq that doesn’t preach to a choir or turn into a political piece. Jeremy Renner plays Staff Sgt. William James, the leader of the unit. He is also addicted to the risk and thrill of cheating death. Renner does a fine job here, but Anthony Mackie’s Sgt. Sanborn stands out. He is just an ordinary soldier serving out his deployment. He is sick and tired of all the death and misery around him. He counts every day until the time he can go back to the States. His final conversation with James in the Humvee is heart wrenching. The dialogue is down-to-earth and believable while it questions our basic existence and worth on this world. Mackie’s delivery is just right and it will affect anyone emotionally, whether you are for or against the war.

Cheri

As varied as his films have been – from My Beautiful Laudrette to Dangerous Liaisons to Dirty Pretty Things to The Queen – director Stephen Frears does not make a bad movie, and his most recent work Cheri is no exception. The film is at once a romantic triangle and a beautifully melancholy nostalgia piece about life and aging.

The film reunites Frears with Michelle Pfeiffer, the leading lady in Liaisons of two decades ago. Pfeiffer is perfect as Lea, a highly accomplished courtesan ready for retirement. Pfeiffer has made very few movies in recent years and her appearance in Cheri signifies how much the world of film has lost by her absence. Unlike most of her contemporaries, Pfeiffer has done little work to her face and what a face she has! It is still astonishingly beautiful and all the lines on her face only help to make her much more interesting. Lea becomes romantically involved with her fellow courtesan’s son whom she had nicknamed Cheri (played by Rupert Friend) as a child. The affair is doomed from the start, but even though the audience clearly sees that they cannot possibly have a future together, one is intrigued to see how their relationship will be resolved.

Beautifully shot by Darius Khondji, Cheri makes the most of its French locations and settings. Frears and Khondji frame scene after scene like classic paintings and the film is a sumptuous feast for the eye. Screenwriter Christopher Hampton has done a terrific job adapting French writer Colette’s book into a movie. The dialogues are sharp and witty, especially the exchanges between Lea and Cheri’s mother (played by Kathy Bates).

Unfortunately this movie has been dismissed by many male critics around the country as trivial and meaningless. They completely missed the point and complicated relationships between the central characters. For Lea, Cheri is not only a young lover, but also a son and a family she may have always secretly longed for, and vice versa for Cheri. The film does not shy away from the nuances of their reality. All the schemes and intrigues and the emotional dynamics bring this movie to life. It is so far one of the best movies this year. Frears is currently the most capable director who could extract great performances from actresses and Pfeiffer’s refined, delicate acting is just one more example. Frears can safely claim the title of a “woman’s director”, a void left by the passing of great Hollywood director George Cukor decades ago. I only wish there could be more Stephen Frears out in Hollywood and less Michael Bays.