Potentially the Most Overrated Film of the Year

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2013)

There is much to be said about "Zero Dark Thirty," Kathryn Bigelow's cinematic retelling of the hunt and killing of Osama bin Laden, but the most apt term that comes to mind is "overrated." Plot-wise, we all know how it goes and how it ends. War, hunting, research, torture, invasion, death. It covers a very long span in two hours and forty-five minutes and gives a somewhat choppy rendition of the "actual" events that lead to the discovery of where the world's most infamous terrorist was hiding.
I put the term "actual" in quotes because there is much debate as to how much of the film is true. Having seen it with a friend who knows more than the average person when it comes to American military manoeuvres, in my humble opinion, the all so-called "controversy" of the details of the film being somewhat untrue were created to mislead the public into thinking the truth was actually potentially fictitious.
Smart move, US military. Smart move.
That being said, the film is quite entertaining and really enlightening on many aspects of a hunt for a man that took almost a decade to find. Knowing the film was already in production prior to the actual killing of bin Laden, forcing Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal to backtrack and rewrite the entire ending to the film, lends much gravitas to the information being shared. Knowing some military officials' careers were put in jeopardy for revealing too much intel to Boal lends even more weight. That and the fact that I, myself, had my own intel that some details shared were thought to still be deemed "classified." However, the only reason this film is getting so much attention during Awards Season is mainly because it deals with such a climactic moment in American history and not because the film itself is actually any more worthy of an Oscar than any other military/action-like film like, say, "The Avengers." To not nominate it might be seen as "un-American." There is a reason why Bigelow did not get an Oscar nomination for Best Director: the film is simply not even close to being worthy of such a distinction. That being said, Jessica Chastain's highly-lauded performance as the CIA agent simply known as "Maya" who is believed to have been the mastermind behind the discovery of bin Laden's hideout is even more overrated than the film itself. Yet somehow, she is the front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Usually an extraordinary talent (most deserving for her nomination for "The Help"), Chastain's cardboard performance is utterly one-dimensional. Her lack of emotion or personality throughout the film made me think the role could have as easily been played by even the most dynamic of actresses, Kristen Stewart (read: sarcasm). As much as I was swept up in learning so much about the efforts that were made to capture this horrific individual, Chastain's performance from beginning to end left me wondering why exactly she would even be considered for an Oscar, never mind being a front-runner.
And alas, there is a good chance the Golden Guy will go to the second-least-deserving of the lot when three of the other performances nominated were actually nothing less than exceptional.
Technical nominations aside, the only truly deserving nominee of the bunch is Mark Boal, whose screenplay is based on intel collected by clearly rigorous research.
Many will be enthralled by this film. However, I highly doubt it will be because of the production value and more so for the information contained in its details. Thankfully, Bigelow has no chance of stealing an Oscar away from a far more deserving nominee for a second time. However, this time, that distinction has a good chance of falling in the hands of Chastain.