Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty
**** stars out of ****
To this day we all still live with the specter of 9/11. You may not think about it all the time, but there are times when you are suddenly, shockingly reminded of the most horrific terrorist attack to happen on US soil. Director Kathryn Bigelow reminds you of that desperate, helpless feeling in the first few minutes of the follow up to her last movie, Best Picture Oscar winner, The Hurt Locker. Over a dark screen, frantic 9-1-1 calls from the Twin Towers are played. It is highly disconcerting and quickly gets you back in the mindset that you were in on that fateful day 11 years ago. It was a day that changed our country forever. It ignited the War on Terror that unofficially concluded on May 2, 2011. In Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow attempts to tell the labyrinthine tale about how one woman's obsession ended with the death of our country's most dangerous enemy.
Zero Dark Thirty is not a movie that you breeze through. It demands a lot of you, but you get a lot back in return. It challenges what you believe and what you think is right. The movie has been catching a lot of flak for its portrayal of torture. Some people in the government are complaining that liberties were taken and that these scenes never happened. I don't know about that. There could be exaggeration, but we all know that "advanced interrogation techniques" were used during the Bush administration, and I find it hard to believe that during the entire hunt no one was tortured, or advance interrogated. Also, I have heard people say that the film glorifies torture. I would tell those people that they obviously have not seen the film. The film never makes the statement that torture is good. It doesn't definitively say that it is evil, either. It presents it without any sort of moralistic comment and lets the audience judge for itself, which is what good films do.
The lead in the film belongs to Jessica Chastain. Chastain plays Maya, a CIA analyst who joins the hunt and is instrumental in the capture of bin Laden. Chastain gives the performance of the year. It is honest, unapologetic, and unflinching. It isn't surprising that a female director gives us the best female character to appear on screen in 2012. Maya lives for her job. She is consumed with doing the best that she can. There is no love interest, perhaps no happily ever after. She is fully committed to this operation and she makes no apologies for it. It's refreshing to see a character like Maya after all the Bella's and flighty, romantic comedy heroines.
I'm not going into too many plot details because it is better just to experience the film on your own. It's worth it. The last 45 minutes of the film, where the SEAL team goes after bin Laden is probably the tensest 45 minutes of any film I have ever seen. It reminded me a lot of Argo. You know how the movie is going to end, but you are still nervous, like there is a chance he's not there, or that it's going to go belly up. Kudos to Bigelow.
Bottom Line: Kathryn Bigelow crafts a worthy follow up to The Hurt Locker. The movie asks hard questions and delivers no easy answers. Chastain and the other actors endow each part, even the smallest, with depth.
Zero Dark Thirty is not a movie that you breeze through. It demands a lot of you, but you get a lot back in return. It challenges what you believe and what you think is right. The movie has been catching a lot of flak for its portrayal of torture. Some people in the government are complaining that liberties were taken and that these scenes never happened. I don't know about that. There could be exaggeration, but we all know that "advanced interrogation techniques" were used during the Bush administration, and I find it hard to believe that during the entire hunt no one was tortured, or advance interrogated. Also, I have heard people say that the film glorifies torture. I would tell those people that they obviously have not seen the film. The film never makes the statement that torture is good. It doesn't definitively say that it is evil, either. It presents it without any sort of moralistic comment and lets the audience judge for itself, which is what good films do.
The lead in the film belongs to Jessica Chastain. Chastain plays Maya, a CIA analyst who joins the hunt and is instrumental in the capture of bin Laden. Chastain gives the performance of the year. It is honest, unapologetic, and unflinching. It isn't surprising that a female director gives us the best female character to appear on screen in 2012. Maya lives for her job. She is consumed with doing the best that she can. There is no love interest, perhaps no happily ever after. She is fully committed to this operation and she makes no apologies for it. It's refreshing to see a character like Maya after all the Bella's and flighty, romantic comedy heroines.
I'm not going into too many plot details because it is better just to experience the film on your own. It's worth it. The last 45 minutes of the film, where the SEAL team goes after bin Laden is probably the tensest 45 minutes of any film I have ever seen. It reminded me a lot of Argo. You know how the movie is going to end, but you are still nervous, like there is a chance he's not there, or that it's going to go belly up. Kudos to Bigelow.
Bottom Line: Kathryn Bigelow crafts a worthy follow up to The Hurt Locker. The movie asks hard questions and delivers no easy answers. Chastain and the other actors endow each part, even the smallest, with depth.
Really a good movie. Jessica is so natural that you can almost feel her pain and frustration. And one thing which hurts me all the time--why my beloved India lack the same determination to kill all those a**h***s who are killing innocent people and spilling blood down the streets. They just play politics. Anyways that's another discussion--go4 this movie without girlfriend probably :)
ReplyDeletejessica chastain is outstanding. the film grows on you and i love the documentary feel to it. its a bold film to make. Katherine is a star director. commendable effort as in many places u feel as if u r a part of the project.
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