When The Hurt Locker came out in 2009 and swept the Oscars, I found myself a bit puzzled as to why. I mean don't get me wrong, in its own right, it's a good enough movie. But to me it definitely wasn't deserving of the Best Picture title, and I felt like the praise it was getting was due to post-9/11, anti-terrorism sentiment. I honestly also believe that this is the same reason ZDT is getting all the praise it's receiving. It's swept the Boston Society of Film Critics awards, the National Board of Review awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle awards so far, and I wouldn't necessarily say it's deserved. That's not to say it's not a good movie. It's perfectly fine. In fact, I'd say I'd place it in my top-5 of the year. But to call it the best movie of a year in which films like Looper and The Perks of Being a Wallflower have come out--well, let's just say I wouldn't honestly. I can give 2 very high forms of praise to ZDT, however--1) that I found it a lot more engaging than the Hurt Locker, and 2) Jessica Chastain gives one of the definitive performances of the year in the film.
Straight to the point, Zero Dark Thirty is essentially a revenge film--on a nationwide standpoint and on a personal level. On a national level, obviously, the movie is about Seal Team Six and the CIA's initiative to go after Osama Bin Laden. The film explicitly begins with pure audio--real calls made on September 11th, 2001, reminding the audience of our nation's greatest tragedy, and why this mission within the narrative matters. It's a nice artistic touch on Bigelow's part, if not a bit on the nose. However, as Americans, we understand why this was so important for us; why we needed to spend all this time, money, and resources on to find Bin Laden--essentially, revenge and closure for the world's biggest terrorist attack. This is the mission Maya is on for half the movie. However, the other half of the movie takes a very personal turn for Maya, as their mission ends up getting a few close people to her killed. From then, we understand completely, that Maya's motivations, as well as the film's tone, shifts to become a personal revenge story. From there we are completely with Maya, engrossed in her mission to find and kill Bin Laden, one part because of Maya's personal story, and the other because of Chastain's commanding tenacity on screen. Here is a character with one motive on her mind, but a million and a half emotions and internal conflicts. She's devoting several years of her life for this manhunt, to the point where at the end she doesn't know what to do with herself when the job is done--actually similar to Jeremy Renner's compelling character Sergeant James from The Hurt Locker. At this final moment, this is where the movie becomes a perfect companion piece to Hurt Locker. And Chastain pulls all of this off so well. We get the eager rookie. We get the obsessed professional. And we get the determined, damaged point person of the mission, fighting tooth and nail for what she believes in. The movie is driven by Maya's character. And it's benefited by Chastain's powerful performance embodying this character.
As for the story, overall the entire exercise is engaging, but there are serious moments where Kathryn Bigelow tends to dawdle. Yes, many of these scenes are necessary for the overall plot and the execution of the mission from this team led by Maya, but you can't help but want her to get to the point at times--much like The Hurt Locker as well. We get many scenes and are engaged with the detective work the team is doing to find all every single lead to Bin Laden. But a lot of times, some of these scenes tend to go nowhere or tend to go somewhere ridiculously slowly. However, when it all pays off, and when we finally get to the climax of the film, the full raid on the facility where the team believes Bin Laden is hiding at, the movie sucks you in completely. The tension is so high, your mouth drops. And Bigelow films all of this with stunning expertise. It's as if she logged in a million hours of Call of Duty, just to suck you into the action of the events taking place. It's tense, it's fun, it's poignant. Mark Boal's screenplay also never forgets to show the grittier, more despicable sides to this manhunt, as the first quarter of the film focuses exclusively on the "detain and torture" side of the mission. These scenes are incredibly realistic and conflicted, in some ways, both supporting and opposing the position of torturing prisoners to get results. However, per Boal during the post-screening interview, it was never his intention to insert his or Bigelow's personal opinions on the topic, but rather expose the intensity and desperation required to get this job done by all parties involved. And it's because of this that the conflicted nature of the scenes works so well. As stated before though, it's something of a chore to get from the torture scenes to the raid at the end. We get a lot of great acting, a lot of great strategizing, and a lot of emotion, which is fantastic, but it's on such a slow-burn kind of pace, that you get a bit impatient. However, again, it's fascinating and involving to watch as a whole, as the entire thing pays off gracefully and intensely.
Again though, as engrossing a film as it can be, it also feels as if the sole intention of the movie is to promote patriotism. I haven't seen a film with so much "Go America" sentimentality since Team America World Police (which I know was ironic--as is my comment obviously). Yeah we root for the good old U.S. of A, but does that mean this deserves to be the Best Picture of the year because of it? I somewhat think not. I simply can't get behind the idea of ZDT as the BEST picture of the year if the only thing driving that sentiment is in fact an overwhelming sense of patriotism. However, for its own merits as an engaging fact-based story, as well as Chastain's performance and her amazing character that drives the movie, I think I could definitely get behind it as ONE of the better films of the year.
Overall Grade: B+
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