Zero Dark Thirty Review

Words By

• Mad Dog Bradley

Director/co-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer/co-producer Mark Boal’s follow-up to their award-winning, if bitterly divisive, The Hurt Locker is, arguably, again not quite what it might appear: whereas Locker was less about war than what it is to have a death wish, ZDT is less about the suspenseful true-life search for Osama bin Laden than the red tape one woman must wade through to prove that a mean old bastard is living in suburban Pakistan.

Maya (Jessica Chastain, perfectly cast as a character that reportedly suffers from some compositing and artistic license) is a CIA agent introduced in 2003 observing the torture (sorry, ‘interrogation’) of a terror suspect and then, over a frustrating period of years, sticking to her conviction that bin Laden’s hiding in plain sight, and butting heads with the blokes who run the whole gargantuan (and at times chaotic) operation, and are torn between the fear of making fools of themselves and wanting to blow shit up. And the first near-two-thirds of the drama details her fighting with superiors (particularly Kyle Chandler’s Joseph Bradley and James Gandolfini’s CIA Director), gaining support and watching as friends depart (and die), before we finally get to the SEAL-storming stuff which proves to be surprisingly effective, given that we know exactly what’s going to happen.

Almost uninvolving at times, as we’re initially subjected to lots of technical jargon and talk, talk, talk, Bigelow’s film nevertheless does eventually get properly gripping, and benefits greatly from Chastain’s subtly powerhouse performance. And yes, it does end on a bit of an anticlimax - but, then again, so did Osama bin Laden.