"So close no matter how far,Couldn't be much more from the heart,Forever trusting who we are,And nothing else matters".

Rating: 6/10 (11 March 2013)

Hearing about director Kathryn Bigelow for the first time in connection to her ex-husband (and fellow film maker) James Cameron,I was disappointed to find out that her soon to be Oscar winning movie The Hurt Locker was sadly not playing in any cinemas near me,which lead to me deciding that I would keep a special look-out for her follow up to The Hurt Locker,in the hopes that it would be given a wider cinema release.
Being very impressed by the 3rd trailer for the movie, (backed by a haunting cover of Metallic's Nothing Else Matters) and also intrigued about Bigelow taking on a decade long spanning subject,I was thrilled to discover that the film was going to play at a near by art house cinema,which led to me getting ready to witness "The greatest manhunt in history."
The plot:
Ever since she was hired by the CIA shortly after she had finished high school,CIA officer Maya has made it her goal in life to do everything possible to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.Joining up with a fellow CIA officer called Dan,Dan and Maya interrogate captives who are suspected of having terrorist connection.
Focusing a good amount of their time and attention on a terror suspect called Ammar,Ammar ends up giving them details about an old acquaintance of his,who he clams is now a courier for Bin Laden.Getting confirmation from fellow terror suspects that the courier (called Abu Ahmed) does exist,Maya is left confused and infuriated about finding the elusive Ahmed,due to there now sadly being no sign of him at all.
As the years go on without a single trace of Abu or Osama,Maya is disappointed to find that she is one of the few people in the CIA who is still searching for Bin Laden,which leads to Maya deciding that she is going to do everything she can to pick up Abu Ahmed's tracks,and also be the person that finally tracks down the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.
View on the film:
Spanning a turbulent 8 year period,the screenplay by Mark Boal surprisingly lacks any sense of scope,with the events feeling that they are taking place over a number of weeks,and not years.Whilst Boal's sense of pace does allow the movie to feel pretty quick moving,it takes away from any feeling that this manhunt is something that takes over Maya's life,due to the manhunt unexpectedly being shown as pretty straight forward,with Maya and her fellow CIA officers being shown to hardly hit any brick walks,which led to this search lasting for over 8 years.
For the torture scenes in the film,producer/director Kathryn Bigelow smartly keeps away from stylising the scenes at all,to instead show the audience the "enhanced interrogation" methods in a sharp, blunt form,with the camera being firmly placed right at the front,so that the viewer feels the full horrific force of the torture taking place.
Contrasting the blunt style that the torture scenes are shown in,Bigelow and cinematography Greg Fraser give the movie a weirdly dust and gritty free appearance,that along with making Maya's (played by a very middle of the road Jessica Chastain) search for a needle in a haystack feel oddly non misty,also leads to the movie failing to increase any tension until the final 30 minutes,just before the darkness becomes dawn.