Dislikeable main character comes across as a petulant child...

Rating: 2/10 (30 July 2014)

*Contains what may be considered spoilers*
Zero Dark Thirty... Well I hated The Hurt Locker so didn't have great hopes for this one and my expectations were not misplaced.
My problem with this film wasn't, as many others have stated, that the film was boring or that the characters were plain. The action sequences were rather good especially the raid scene at the end, the scenes where they were chasing the courier were tense and interesting, and some of the intelligence work by SUPPORTING CHARACTERS was also pretty engaging. My main problem was that the main character and the performance of the leading actress were inherently unrealistic and dis-likable. Several instances of her behaviour seemed to me to be entirely inappropriate for her professional role and in the real world would probably have seen her dismissed or at least reprimanded.
I'm sure the standards of professionalism required to work in the intelligence services is very high and that one requires a stable and professional personality to hold such a position. The use of belligerent and unnecessary profanity like "I'm the motherf**ker that found this place" during a formal meeting with a very high ranking senior or childishly writing the number of days that nothing has happened each day on your bosses window like a sulking two year old just do not ring true for me and left me really just detesting the main character. Her general attitude and sense of entitlement even when there was little or no real evidence (the '100 percent' scene being a perfect example of arrogance) was never once even cautioned by her superiors... Perhaps this was part of the films determination to portray every other agent or official involved as a bumbling idiot. I'm talking about things like taking a single detainee's word that someone they were looking for was dead with no supporting evidence besides his word, or allowing a known terrorist to just drive into a military base without any checks on their vehicle, not even asking them to dismount at a safe distance resulting in several stupid agents and sensible but outspoken military personnel being killed...
Everything not featuring 'Maya' was pretty good. The Seal Team stuff was engaging, I had no problems with the torture scenes or the (reputedly) pro American stance of the film. Why should that be a factor? Of course its a pro American film given the subject matter.. I'm not an American and have no strong feelings either way about the Foreign policies of the United States but I understand the significance of these events to Americans and to the last decade of global politics. Asking a film about this subject to not celebrate a countries victory against someone who committed an atrocity would be like asking to make a film about the fall of Hitler that didn't celebrate the victory of the Allies..
In closing I would just like to say that the final scene where Maya shed tears just seemed weird given how dis-likable she was throughout the film. Were we supposed to connect to her? Because I literally felt no sympathy or connection to her at all and as a result that final scene seemed forced and unnecessary.
My advice would be if you want to see a GREAT film about this kind of intelligence work go check out Body Of Lies... That film really puts this to shame..