All The President's Men At War

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2013)

(First off I'll say that anybody giving this film less than 7/10 is a f**king idiot although the 1st Amendment stills applies to y'all. Go back to GlenBeckistan & wait for Ahnuld's new movie.)
Kathryn Bigelow/Mark Boal's follow up to their Oscar winning "The Hurt Locker" is as tightly focused as that intense thriller but not nearly as exciting because it paints a much broader canvas over a much greater amount of time.
This film reminds me of Alan J. Pakula's 1976 film "All The President's Men"in pacing, tone & brains. ZDT is a procedural depicting digging for clues & evidence discovery. It invites the audience to go along on the process that includes trust issues & backing off & pushing on. Though it may not be as flat entertaining as the excellent "Argo" (& "Lincoln") it is very compelling material that Bigelow expertly depicts.
I think that Jessica Chastain is fantastic as Maya who drives the whole "hunt for Bin Laden" along at some great personal costs. Her face often captures the pain that goes along with the gain.
Bigelow & Boal treat the audience as adults --smart adults-- by not spelling out everything in bold capital letters & black & white. The climatic raid that finally gets UBL plays out in very matter-of-fact manner. It seems almost slo-mo at times but it shows military expertise that has already been played out hundreds --if not, thousands-- of times in training& actual operations on the battle field. I don't remember ever seeing a climax staged in this way. It is a virtuoso effort by a director at the top of her game who is not afraid to change things up.
This is a tough film to categorize. I think of it as a "compeller" rather than a "thriller", but I was caught up in it every single second.