I'm the motherf**ker who found this place, sir!

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2013)

One of the best movies I have seen in ages. Director Kathryn Bigelow did a masterful job with Mark Boal's script.
Yes, it was about the hunt for Usama bin Laden, and yes it was about Seal Team Six and their raid on the compound in Abbottabad, but it was so much more than that.
I cannot imagine one awards show or one critics choice for Best Actress no going to Jessica Chastain, who played Maya (Jen in Mark Owen's "No Easy Day). She nailed the character. She made the film. She was it.
Everyone else in the film just circled around Maya. She was the one driven to find UBL. So driven that the real CIA agent depicted by Maya was denied promotion because she managed to really irritate her superiors. Go figure.
So driven that the CIA Station Chief that replaced Bradley (Kyle Chandler) told her he found it easier just to agree with her.
I was understandably impressed by Maya because I have found myself in that situation many times in the military, and in government service. "We're 60% certain" is often as far as most bureaucrats will go. They talk mission, but it is the resume that drives behavior. You see this in those around Maya, and it makes her drive to succeed so much more enjoyable.
I was not expecting the ending. It was not typical, but IT WAS PERFECT. I won't spoil it as some reviewers have already done. It has to be seen and savored. It is the ending that condemns the Academy for leaving Bigelow off the list of Best Director nominees.