Zero Dark Thirty - Review

The woman behind the so-called "greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man."

Zero Dark Thirty is a story.  It's not meant to serve as a 100% factual representation of the events leading up to and including Osama Bin Laden's death.  Rather, it's a stylized exercise in strategic planning and military intelligence that ultimately resulted in a manhunt that has been cemented in the history books.  The heart and soul of the film is clearly Jessica Chastain (who seems to me to be Director Kathryn Bigelow's doppelganger... or maybe it's the other way around...).  At any rate, Chastain's character strikes the right balance between intellect, tenacity, and guts.  She's an intriguing character based on a real person, and Chastain's portrayal of her reveals various facets of her personality throughout the film.

The film features some striking sequences that underscore the shaky situation these military and intelligence operatives were faced with.  And the film's final act is completely captivating.  Years of hard work and due diligence are condensed into a slightly bulky 2.5ish hours... but it all comes down to that final sequence at Bin Laden's compound.  We all know the bare bones of the story because we lived through it.  Zero Dark Thirty operates on similar filmmaking strategies that made The Hurt Locker such a success.  While ZDT gains some power from its basis in "reality", I enjoyed Hurt Locker more.  However, both films represent different cinematic approaches to a topical subject and are worth checking out. 

Zero Dark Thirty 3.5 / 5

Note: I don't own the rights to any of the photos on this website.  They're copied here from Google images for entertainment purposes only.