The 2009 movie season has been relentlessly tough on difficult dramas. There hasn't been a breakout specialized film release anywhere near last year's "Slumdog Millionaire." And ever since Hollywood starting turning out movies about Iraq, audiences (not to mention award voters) have stayed miles away.
"The Hurt Locker," in other words, had three strikes against it -- before it even stepped up to bat.
But in one of the more noteworthy movie surprises of the year, director Kathryn Bigelow's look at an American explosive ordnance disposal team in Iraq is making a bang at the art house and seems likely to remain an awards front-runner.
With domestic ticket sales of more than $7 million to date, "The Hurt Locker" is hardly a blockbuster, and isn't going to help stem the summer's plummeting sales, in which box-office returns have been down four straight weeks compared with a year ago. Yet Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal's film is on track to gross $15 million or more in its total theatrical run -- an exceptionally strong performance given the film's subject matter and its absence of recognizable stars.
Just seven weeks into its run, "The Hurt Locker" has performed better than most recent dramas about Middle East conflict. Acquired by Summit Entertainment, the new studio behind the "Twilight" franchise, at last year's Toronto International Film Festival for $1.5 million, "The Hurt Locker" already has outperformed 2007's "In the Valley of Elah" ($6.8 million domestic theatrical gross), will soon go by 2008's "Stop-Loss" ($10.9 million) and even could surpass 2007's "Lions for Lambs" ($15 million), which starred the A-list triumvirate of Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. "The Hurt Locker's" most crucial role -- the fearless, adrenaline-addicted bomb defuser Staff Sgt. William James -- is played by Jeremy Renner, a veteran character actor perhaps best known for appearing in the horror sequel "28 Weeks Later."
"The Hurt Locker's" highly positive critical reception has placed the film in early conversations about a possible best picture Oscar nomination -- a field that is doubling in size from the traditional five movies to 10 nominees in next year's ceremony. About the only negative notice the movie received from prominent critics came from Daily Variety, which also minimized the film's box office potential.
