A highly charged political thriller, very good portrayal!!

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2013)

Kathryn Bigelow (Oscar winning director of 'The Hurt Locker') brings us a very good portrayal of the events that lead up to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden (OBL). She has aptly collaborated with writer Mark Boal (a journalist himself) in order to nicely bring out those moments on screen. Jessica Chastain (as Maya) delivers a fine yet subdued performance in her Analyst role that actually leads up to OBL's hideout in Pakistan. We get to witness many torture methods on detainees (especially water-boarding) that makes the movie a bit controversial. Yet, the Production Design and the Cinematography combines well with the Screenplay and provides the viewers a glimpse of the events as it unfolded at that time.
The supporting cast in the movie was quite good as well. Jason Clarke as Dan, Kyle Chandler as Station Chief Joe Bradley and James Gandolfini making a brief appearance as CIA Director Leon Panetta were impressive in their performances. It looks like most of the movie had been shot in India (adjoining Pakistan, in order to depict Pakistan-like environment). Although the movie starts off in a slow note, it really picks up pace at the halfway point and goes on to deliver from there. The scenes involving the Navy SEAL raid in the night environment stands out as impressive. The movie strikes a right chord all along the narration with the audience.
The movie kept me gripped for a while at the start, became engrossing in the middle and was getting towards predictability at the end. Mark Boal aptly deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay for his research and writing of the events for the screen (although some of the facts as mentioned in the movie are questionable and was aptly pointed out by other reviewers in this forum). My overall rating would be a 7 out of 10.
Regards, Ganesh.