Serious and Stoic

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2013)

By the numbers and in the vein of her former Oscar winner "The Hurt Locker", Kathlyn Bigelow's barren "Zero Dark Thirty" is a serial account of major events relating to the State sanctioned terrorist killing of Usama Bin Laden. The movie stars a relentless Jessica Chastain as Maya in an emotionally taut story of her crusade and job to hunt-down and kill terrorist targets; it succeeds in imparting a claustrophobic feeling of base work space, as well as barren or impoverished settings. From hearsay the story was related to the book, "No Easy Day", a recount of the Navy Seal Mission that enacted the killing in Pakistan by a former Seal. Thirty's climax is that fight, which keeps to the Seal's description of what transpired faithfully. However, there is no joy and a constant drain and strain on all the characters psyche evidenced in the departure of Co-Star's Jason Clarke's character Dan, and especially in the beginning with gruesome scenes of interrogation. The experience is certainly not dull, and there's a docudrama feel to it - like Bigelow is trying to keep close to her source material. 7/10 Deserves a recommendation.