Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Zero Dark Thirty

Friday, January 11, 2013

Zero Dark Thirty - Review

Zero Dark Thirty
(2012 - January 11, 2013 USA)
Action | Drama | History
2 hr. 37 min.

Rated: R Language, Brutal Disturbing Images and Strong Violence Information for parents: Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+. Read More
Grade: B+

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: Mark Boal (screenplay)
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt | See full cast and crew

The Academy Award-winning duo behind The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal) reteams for this drama detailing the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and starring Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain as the intelligence expert who dedicated a decade of her life to tracking down the world's most wanted terrorist. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the CIA began interrogating suspected Al-Qaeda agents across the globe in a bid to locate the elusive bin Laden. Upon arriving at a CIA black site and witnessing the brutal interrogation tactics firsthand, driven CIA operative Maya (Chastain) aids her unpredictable colleague Dan (Jason Clarke) in gathering the intelligence that will help bring bin Laden to justice. Over the course of the next decade, numerous false leads and dead ends make the search seem more futile than ever. Meanwhile, numerous suicide bombings all across the Middle East and Europe hint that Al Qaeda won't go down without a fight. Then, just when it seemed as if the trail of clues had finally dried up, an old piece of evidence leads Maya to a suspect who may work directly for the man charged with planning the worst act of terrorism ever committed on American soil. Joel Edgerton, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Strong, Chris Pratt, and James Gandolfini co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Knowing the the team behind The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, was also the creative teams behind Zero Dark Thirty, I was skeptical. I hated the former film and was not looking forward to a 2 hr. 37 min. leftist propaganda film/Obama campaign video. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a serviceable, well made film and interesting once it gets going and far less political than I had anticipated (not to say that it isn't). Aside from the earliest scenes where it threatens to become a relentless liberal harangue over interrogation methods and torture, it ends up being somewhat ambiguous.

Zero Dark Thirty, is a small step above a good made for TV movie. None of the characters are written with any depth with the exception of the 'star' Maya (Jessica Chastain) and unfortunately her performance is hollow and forced and tends to drag the entire film down. What could have been a gripping story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden becomes bogged down in an all too repetitive 'I am woman hear me roar' whine-fest. The rest of the cast is pretty much cardboard cutout window dressing for Maya's single minded dedication. This operation could never have happened without the touch of a woman who acts like a man, illustrated by her climactic vindication with CIA Director (James Gandolfini) when he asks who she is and she responds, I'm the m*****f****r who came up with this plan. Classy eh!

Maya is certainly not the only one that has a tendency to use vulgar language in this film. It could have all been done without the foul dialogue but it still isn't as pervasive as it was in ARGO. It is not full of torture scenes as some have implied, certainly nothing approaching what can be seen by anyone on Al Jazeera and that torture is real, truly authenic not Hollywood theatrics (Thank you Al Gore for selling your network and becoming a lobbyist to and for the popaganda outlet for Islamic jihadists, but I digress). All that said, the film is still worth a look but leave the kids and younger teens at home.