Zero Dark Thirty

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2013)

Remember "Act of Valor" from earlier this year? Do you also remember how terrible it was? What dreadful performances the SEALS tried to provide? That movie was a bad concept to begin with, but the last thirty minutes of the thrilling and powerful "Zero Dark Thirty" make up for it swiftly. The half-hour scene where the SEALS invade Bin Laden's hide out and gun him down is easily the most pulse-pounding half-hour of the year. Somehow it goes by in seemingly both mere minutes and long hours, because while thoroughly enjoying ourselves, we are also painfully eager to find out what happens next.
The director, Kathryn Bidgelow, who brought us a great film called "The Hurt Locker" in 2009 after twenty years of making bad ones, has surprisingly made a film even better than "The Hurt Locker." I have a feeling Mark Boal, the screenwriter of both movies, brings out the best in her as a director. "Zero Dark Thirty" tells a story spanning a decade with a brilliant and electric urgency. It's the blow-out, eye-popping, heart-stopping, mind-rocking thriller of the year. Be ready to be blown away. Like I said a paragraph ago, the way the film rolls along is almost indescribable, because we're so eager to get to the end, yet so wrapped in the moment, that keeping track of the way time is actually passing is virtually impossible. Though it doesn't sound like it, I'm nearly completely sure that's a compliment.
Let's move on to Jessica Chastain. She's incredible here, even better than she was in "The Help", and, though the performances were vastly different, that's still saying something. It also says something that both of those performances can be so vastly different, but still both manage to be great. Chastain is currently a very underrated actress who can display a variety of emotions, but isn't familiar to your average Joe because rather than picking mainstream money-makers, she picks good films to star in. I hope to see her in more developed and varying roles in the future.
You can expect "Zero Dark Thirty" to take a chunk out of Oscar, because, not only is it a great film, but it also touches on a subject that was featured on the news. Oscar loves those types of movies, because they don't judge films based upon their quality. No, Oscar judges films based on their ambition and their relevance, so Bidgelow's thriller should be a shoe-in for a Best Picture nomination and four or five others. Though both aren't the Best Picture of the year, but are both great film, I believe, and you heard it here first, that the award will go to either "Lincoln" or the film I'm currently reviewing. Apart from award-show banter, I just want you to go see "Zero Dark Thirty," and see it in the theaters. I assure you, it's a knockout.