Coming-of-age of a woman CIA agent

Rating: Null/10 (25 February 2013)

If you look at the reviews of "Zero dark thirty" by two most-read critics, you just might get the impression that they are talking about two entirely different movies. The elite critic focuses on the subject of torture, citing that even when in terms of screen time it covers only the initial 15 minutes of the 150-minute movie, it has the effect of "Rosebud", implanting a theme that dominates the entire movie. The mass-audience critic, on the other hand, paints a picture as an espionage investigative thriller, without a single mention of torture.
Just for fun, I am offering a third angle of viewing this movie as a coming-of-age story of the protagonist, a fictitious CIA agent named Maya (Jessica Chastain).
"Zero dark thirty" is fiction based on well-known facts, the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden. As such, it actually has the better of both worlds. For some sequences, such as the final operation in bin Laden's hide-out mansion, it pretty well have to follow all the details that have been under close scrutiny by the world. On the other hand, with the fictitious protagonist, there is significant creative freedom.
The persona of Maya is presented initially as somewhat nervous when posted to a CIA "black site", witnessing a torture scene. Soon, we see her picking up the "trade craft" using exactly the same opening "line" on a prisoner to be questioned as the one used earlier by experienced interrogator Dan (Jason Clarke). Although she is opposed to using extreme violence and torture, she is gradually becoming, in every other respect, just as much of a veteran as Dan. She has, at least, no reservation about slapping a prisoner hard every 30 seconds (to be more precise, have her male colleague do the slapping). This coming-of-age then takes another turn, when a colleague-turned-friend called Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) is killed by a suicide bomb attack, when killing bin Laden becomes her very own personal vendetta and the movie turns somewhat melodramatic.
At the time of this writing, Oscar results have just been announced. It is quite a surprise to see Chastain who has swept just about every major award so far losing to Jennifer Lawrence. I won't be seeing "The silver linings playbook" for another week and so cannot compare (although I do know how good Lawrence can be from "The winter bones"). Chastain's performance is top-notch. However, I suspect that the nature of her character suffers somewhat from the lack of depth, the way it has been written. As mentioned above, midway through the movie. Maya's character, instead of being developed into more dimensions, takes a turn to a more melodramatic personal vendetta.
In addition to Chastain, ZDT has an excellent cast. Mentioned earlier are Clarke who was in explosive brother in "Lawless" and Ehle who excelled in two support roles as Christabel LaMotte in "Possessions" and as the speech therapist's (played by Jeffery Rush) wife. Other similarly impressive resumes are from Joel Edgerton (the shaggy-haired knight Gawain in "King Arthur") playing the squadron team leader in the operation and James Gandolfini (the over-the-hill New York hit man in "Killing them softly") as CIA director, a –show-stealing support.