Every year there is a film that is featured in the awards circuit that I find overrated. Slumdog Millionaire and Babel come immediately to mind. This year, I had a nagging suspicion that Zero Dark Thirty may have been that film for me. This was completely unfounded and surprising, since I enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and believe Jessica Chastain to be one of the most talented actresses of our generation.
However, I'm glad to know that ZDT is in fact one of the year's best and deserving of the many awards it has racked up. (Any Oscar momentum it had from the critics' awards has probably been lost with the recent announcement of the Academy's nominees. Ms. Bigelow is nowhere to be found in the list of Best Directors.)
It's safe to say this film has also received its fair share of criticism, most of it with regard to factual aspects. It's hard to know who is right when it comes to these factual criticisms. But as a film, those criticisms don't really come to mind.
The film tells the story of Maya, a CIA officer who spends her entire 12-year career searching for bin Laden (UBL). So for those who expect the film to center around the raid of the compound, you will be disappointed. But you will also be missing out. The raid is a part of the climax, but it was simultaneously an afterthought for me (if that makes any sense). The decade-long search that comprises the first two hours of the film is storytelling gold. In fact, Maya's reaction at the end of the film indicates just how important that journey is. While she is in fact the self-described "motherf**ker who found (UBL)," we see just how much manpower the delicate and nuanced the search required.
A technical, storytelling, and acting feat, the film easily earns a rating of 4 stars (****).
Check it out ASAP. And if you've seen it, what did you think?
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