ZERO DARK THIRTY IS A CHALLENGING, THOUGHT PROVOKING JOY

Zero Dark Thirty is the story of the 12 year search for Osama Bin Laden. In it, we go from failed attempts at retrieving vital information via water boarding to a behind the scenes look at the different ins and outs of the procedural for the search and finally we get to tag along with SEAL Team 6 as they raid Osama Bin Laden's safe house.

In Zero Dark Thirty, Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a top level CIA operative that finds herself leading the search for Osama Bin Laden. This film is essentially the Jessica Chastain show, as the film focuses pretty much solely on her and her efforts to gain information that could lead to locating the feared and hated terrorist leader. It's interesting to watch Maya's transformation from quiet mousy type to the vocal intense and determined heroine. This is quite possibly Chastain's best performance, and the Academy should just hand her the Oscar for Best Leading Actress right now and get it over with, she's earned it. Maya easily makes for one of the best heroines of the 21st century, a heroine that isn't necessarily the "good" guy, a heroine that makes tough calls, a heroine that is almost blinded by her drive to finish her job, A heroine that almost isn't a heroine.  Chastain's performance here is one of the key selling points of the film, as well it should be.

The only other notable performance here is Jason Clarke who plays Dan, the water boarding expert. He puts on a pretty brutal performance here, but is still all too human even when he gets down and dirty with the detainees/prisoners. In any other film he would be considered a recurring role, but in here he essentially gets second billing since he is the only other character who shows up quite a bit in the film. Every other character is essentially a walk-on role, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. If the film were to try to focus on every major player, it would likely get bogged down and quickly lose it's focus. It was wise to focus mainly on Chastain and Clarke.

Now, about those water boarding scenes. Yes, they are indeed brutal and pretty hard to watch. Zero Dark Thirty doesn't really take a stance on the issue, what it does do though, is present water boarding as it is in real life. It does not just affect the prisoner, but also the person doing the torturing as we see during a crucial scene where Dan reveals he is leaving the torture business due to the toll it has taken on him. I will say that this film changed the way I looked at water boarding.

Katherine Bigelow got snubbed for Best Director, due in large part, I believe, to the water boarding scenes. This is a huge flub on the Academy's part. Bigelow did an amazing job with this film, keeping it at an even pace and tone throughout....she did a huge achievement here and I feel she deserved to win that award. Unfortunately, the Academy pussied out (like they always do) and not only is this a disservice to the Oscars, it's also a disservice to Bigelow, the film, America, and audiences everywhere. With Bigelow's name withheld from the nominees, this also lessens this film's chance at nabbing the Best Picture Oscar, but more on that later.

I walked into this film a bit trepidatious, I had heard complaints from many that the film gets boring when we go through the procedural portion of the film, but to be honest I thought that that part of the film was every bit as interesting and riveting as the rest of the film was. I was on the edge of my seat and fully invested in Zero Dark Thirty for every second of it's 157 minute running time. At the end of the day, Zero Dark Thirty is a war procedural more than anything else and surprisingly, I was never bored and I loved every single second of it.

Zero Dark Thirty is a film that shatters your expectations, I don't want to say too much about the ending but don't expect any type of USA USA USA moment or a cathartic release of any kind when they finally kill the bastard. Instead, Zero Dark Thirty leaves us with a thought provoking image and an uncomfortable silence.

Zero Dark Thirty starts on September 11, 2001. All we see is complete darkness as various calls from that day play over each other in a deafening and confusing roar, easily making for quite an affecting and shaking opening. The film ends with the death of a monster and leaves us with a deafening silent question: Where do we go from here? Zero Dark Thirty is a challenging film,  it may not be all that enjoyable or as fist-pumping as you would have expected it to be....and it's all the better for it. This film NEEDS to win Best Picture, but I'm pretty sure it won't due to that unintelligent Best Director snub. Zero Dark Thirty is a vitally important film to America's history, it portrays a fairly balanced and unbiased portrait of those tumultuous 12 years when the country was on a hunt for a man that most feared would never be found. It's an important part of our history, and it documents a rough time that helped shape who we are today. It is without a doubt in my mind my personal favorite film of the year and also what I consider to be the best film of the year. I really do feel that everyone needs to see this film.

5/5 STARS