Director Kathryn Bigelow took Best Director Oscar honors for 2009’s low-budget war drama “The Hurt Locker”. That film was released in the summer, got a small amount of early buzz but was the talk of Hollywood by awards season. Now, with “Zero Dark Thirty” Bigelow proves that she’s one of the best directors working today. She has made a gripping, documentary-style account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. And by releasing “Zero Dark Thirty” at the end of the year, it received plenty of awards season attention, even though Bigelow was snubbed for an Oscar nomination.
“Zero Dark Thirty” begins with the World Trade Center attacks. But we only hear conversations over with a black screen with the title card September 11, 2001. And for the next few minutes, we hear raw, emotional dialogue from victims that tragic day. This decision by Bigelow provides new depth and meaning to the lives that were lost. While a picture can say a thousand words, often audio can be more powerful.
Jessica Chastain (who’s had a whirlwind couple of years) stars as Maya. She was recruited to join the C.I.A. right out of high school. In 2003, two years after the “9/11” attacks , she is assigned by Washington to go to Pakistan with one job: to lead the mission to find and kill bin Laden.
Obviously it won’t be easy. Maya and her team go through the next several years interrogating prisoners, following leads and chasing-down clues, all while other deadly attacks are taking place throughout the world. Bigelow uses Maya as the emotional centerpiece for, what at times, feels like a true-life documentary of these events.
Along with 2012 Critics Choice Awards winner Chastain, who’s excellent as the tough and obsessed Maya, “ZDT” features one of the best ensemble casts of the year, led by Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke and Mark Strong. James Gandolfini has a small, but impactful supporting role as the Director of the C.I.A. Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt (from TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) play two of the Navy S.E.A.L.s who take part in the raid on the bin Laden compound.
The screenplay by Mark Boal is impressive as it pulls us inside this operation and he does it by being very light on dialogue.
And this may be the most impressive looking “based-on-a-true story” film ever made, highlighted by the climactic raid sequence.
“Zero Dark Thirty” is rated R for some brutal violence including torture scenes, disturbing images and language. It’s appropriate for older teens and up. At over 2 1/2 hours the film does seem stretched out a bit. There’s a lot of on-screen location/date info, which I’m not a big fan of but is necessary in this type of movie. However, they tend to tip-off when something bad is going to happen, which hurts the suspense level a little. And I’m not thrilled with the ending (not the obvious one, there’s one after that), but these are minor issues with what is one of the most impressive films of 2012.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Zero Dark Thirty” gets a B+. The film did win one Oscar – for sound editing (tying with “Skyfall”).