Zero Dark Thirty Review

21st Jan 2013

Kathryn Bigelow proves again why she belongs at the top of the pile of directors intelligent, smart and savvy enough to get the job done. She re-teams with her scribe from the Oscar winning The Hurt Locker and have produced a similar level of realism in this film that charts the hunt for Bin laden.

The film starts with a subject squeamish to man – Torture. Not wanting to waste a moment the audience s thrown uncomfortably right in at the deep end on this one. Whilst nothing is glorified, neither is it shied away from – even though we are treated to a few initial reactions from our lead actress doing just that to begin with.

The film is almost episodic in that it divides the search up into various segments – it starts in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, leaps right into the torture of suspects for information. The charge is then led by Chastains cold and almost emotionless character, diverting from time to time to essay other areas of the hunt – be it those in command or comrades in arms who have their own agenda’s to contend with before finally resulting in the assault.

Chastain does a good job with what is really a cipher of a character. We only get to know here thrown her looks and mainly what she doesn’t say about herself. In other hands the role may have seemed somewhat under-developed. But Chastain earns her awards with a cold, yet always active presence.

This is a history lesson, albeit one of recent history. Bigelow doesn’t slumber into characters making moral decisions about what was done was right or wrong – it simply just is what went down and is left that way. The debate about what was right, wrong is left to the audience in the aftermath of the film.

This is strong and efficient almost documentary style film-making in its prime right here. There is also some strong support from a large cast. A film not likely to be described using the word “Tedious.” It’s tremendous.