Zero Dark Thirty (dir. Bigelow)
So much controversy has surrounded the newest collaboration between Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal that the film's cinematic qualities seem to have taken secondary importance, but this chronicle of the decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden is masterfully directed and tightly constructed around what was, on a day to day basis, a mostly mundane affair. Bigelow's approach keeps the audience at a distance, avoids creating an emotional connection and gives a more or less journalistic account of the procedural, which is why I'm at a loss when it comes to the accusations that the film endorses torture. I think it's obvious that Zero Dark Thirty claims these "enhanced interrogation" techniques helped moved forward the investigation but in no way does it attempt to make a commentary one way or another.
Then again, I'm falling for the same trap here. Putting my opinions on the politics aside, this is an astonishing film. Anchored by an incredibly smart and sensitive performance by Jessica Chastain and a strong supporting cast, Bigelow's film is a grand exercise in building tension without embellishing the core with genre elements. The first half of the film can strike viewers as slow but the nature of the mission requires a faithful telling of the story to map out the process with such meticulous detail. Excepting certain sequences where the sprawling editing drags the narrative a bit and one sequence where excitement is meant to be heightened but is, in effect, only dampened because of the predictable outcome, Zero Dark Thirty is taut and riveting in the way it puts on the screen everything we already knew but were afraid to confront. And the final act of the film, where all the talk and scuffle culminates in the raid we know was coming all along, is a masterstroke of directing, the work of an extremely talented filmmaker at her very best. (A)
