Zero Dark Thirty review

                Brought to us by Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the same Oscar winning duo responsible for “The Hurt Locker”, their new film “Zero Dark Thirty” finds new grounds and darker depths into America’s recent war on terror.  With her last two films, Bigelow has transformed herself into a new kind of director who does nail-biting military thrillers in a way that reinvigorates the genre and reminds people how to tell an entertaining story with characters we actually care about.

                Obviously, due to the political milieu of the subject matter, this awards contender has come under a lot of fire. Unfortunately this controversy will precede most people’s initial viewing experience and might influence their subsequent opinions on the film itself. Personally, I feel that this is not a partisan story and I don’t think that it condones government sanctioned torture, even if Boal and Bigelow are compelled to depict that aspect of espionage. Does it state that torture is effective? That’s debatable but ultimately I think its incidental.

                This movie traces the timeline of America’s investigative intelligence as it tries to locate, capture, and kill those held responsible for the terrorist attacks in New York on September 2001. At the top of that list is Osama Bin Laden, and this film chronicles the ups and downs of that particular wild-goose-chase, up to and including his eventual assassination by the American military in 2010. Jessica Chastain plays Maya; a young and idealistic CIA agent who has been hired to lead the hunt. While fighting the good fight, she finds herself having to stay focused and positive while her senior members lose hope and fall out of the mission, as new laws and new challenges are constantly offsetting the probability of finding their ultimate enemy. 

                Though this movie is filled to the brim with character actors and interesting B-listers, such as Jason Clark, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini and many more—all of whom do a wonderful and effective job—this movie belongs to Chastain, who works as the glue that holds the dramatic through-line to its seat-clenching conclusion. Much like Jodie Foster’s role in “Silence of the Lambs”, her character is faced with adversity from every practical and professional angle. And as her colleagues are either quitting or getting killed, she must project strength, forcing to hide her mounting fragility by the weight of the task at hand.  It’s a very subtle and nuanced performance and though she shares the screen-time with many others, the center-of-consciousness never shifts very far from her perspective. The successes of the film rests on her abilities as an actress and in that regard she burns bright with equal parts grace and gravitas.

                Much like the character of Maya, Kathryn Bigelow helms this massive film with surgical precision and tunes her abilities as a director to new and exciting frequencies. Those who liked “The Hurt Locker” will appreciate how she has managed to build upon that promise with something bigger, but nonetheless intimate.
                Even though this is studied exercise in procedural drama, she designs each scene to breathe and naturally develop, allowing for expressive beats and tender character moments. The movie is almost three hours long and surprisingly the pacing rarely seems to suggest that, that is until the end of the second act where it starts to feel a little draggy in the middle. 

                Though “Zero Dark Thirty” has had to battle for its legitimacy, people need not bring their prior affiliations or allegiances into the theater. This isn’t a political documentary, it’s a cerebral pop-corn film and it’s a damn good one at that. The truth about how these events took place is varied and subject to criticism. But with that in mind, it is important to consider that this is a movie that’s more interested in posing questions than providing answers.

Grade: A

Originally published by the Idaho State Journal Jan/2013