The best film of 2012 so far...

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2013)

A sign of a good film is if it can put you on the edge of your seat, nervously awaiting what happens next. A sign of a great film is when it can do all of those things even though you know the outcome. Unless you've been living in a cave (or a small country mansion in Pakistan) you're probably aware that Osama Bin Laden, the effective 'poster boy' of international terrorism and the al-Qaeda, was found and killed by a group of US Navy SEALs almost two years ago. Zero Dark Thirty documents the hunt over a 10 year period, beginning with a sound collage of phone calls during the 9/11 terrorist attack. This opening pretty much sets you up for the kind of film this is; dark, menacing and uncomfortable.
I was a little skeptical going into this film, fairly certain that it would patriotically wave the flag for the USA and shove down our throats how 'great' they are as a nation. However, it's surprising how unpatriotic the movie is. Maya, portrayed astoundingly by Jessica Chastain, is almost a CIA-prodigy who becomes obsessive about the capture of OBL. She starts out as a fresh-faced new recruit in the US Embassy in Pakistan, initially overwhelmed by the brutality of torture, and gradually morphs into a reclusive and obsessive key-player in the manhunt. Chastain is incredible, being both cold and unlikeable while at the same time being human enough for the audience to still invest in her character. It is a remarkable performance matched by the stellar supporting cast. However, this is very much Maya's show, sometimes feeling more like a study of a workaholic than a docu-drama.
Conversely, when the big guns come out, they certainly come out. For the majority of its two and a half hour running time, most of the action comes from the offices and workspaces of the US Embassy or the CIA, that is not to say that there aren't isolated scenes of explosive action, but they are certainly secondary to the drama. However, this being a picture about a manhunt, the final 30-40 minutes is some of the most gripping and exciting cinema that I've seen in a while. Again, it's a credit to the filmmakers for taking a story we know well and making it into something that still takes us by surprise.
Perhaps the biggest snub of the Academy Awards this year was the lack of a nomination for Kathryn Bigelow, which probably has something to do with the difficult politics and subsequent controversy surrounding the picture. Her nomination would have been one of the most deserving, as the film's power and effect is almost single-handedly down to her direction.
In turns thoughtful, exciting and shocking, Zero Dark Thirty is the best film I've seen so far this year. Phenomenal.
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