Finding bin Laden

Rating: 5/10 (13 May 2013)

Here's the thing. You wait for 2 hours before you get to the only part that 90% of people are really interested in - the night-time mission by American commandos that ended up with Osama bin Laden being killed. Really, isn't that what everyone's interested in? But for two hours, basically what we got was a not always engrossing account of the search for Osama bin Laden, spread over 10 years, so that at times the continuity seemed lacking and I was personally having trouble connecting all the dots - and so I guess I have some sympathy for the difficulties U.S. authorities had in finding the guy. It really, though, isn't that interesting to watch a meeting of CIA officials discuss (at length) the probability of bin Laden being in the house they finally identified.
The movie started out strongly, by using recordings (somewhat controversially from what I understand) of phone calls made from inside the Twin Towers of people calling their families while waiting in vain to be rescued after the planes had hit. It may have been controversial, but it was effective - especially because we simply heard the voices on the phone, with just a black background. No one needs to see the planes crash; we know all too well what that looks like. So that was a good decision by director Kathryn Bigelow. It led into a very graphic and realistic depiction of American torture (I mean - interrogation) techniques on those rounded up that was quite unsettling and it introduced us to Dan (Jason Clarke), who was in charge of the interrogations, and Maya (Jessica Chastain), who had just been assigned to assist him. Chastain was good in the role, and Maya was an interesting character - uncomfortable with what was going on at first, but gradually getting more and more at ease with her role, and developing an obsession with locating and killing bin Laden. It's Maya that the movie revolves around, so a good performance from Chastain was key - and she pulled it off!
And yet, beyond that opening and before the mission to take bin Laden out, I still found this movie to be rather hard going; difficult to follow and not all that interesting. I would say this is much over- rated, but all things considered it was probably a movie that had to be made - or at least one that was inevitably going to be made. (5/10)