Zero Dark Thirty
★★★
(2012)
Kathryn Bigelow's terrifically suspenseful Hurt Locker examined the volatile and explosive side of a deplorable situation; An avoidable one, a war which was pointless and bullish and one which, in her own words, would have no victor. It focused on bomb disposal technicians during the Iraq war and presented itself, mostly, as and action film, something which Bigelow excels in. It's sad then that the torture furor surrounding Zero Dark Thirty, mostly by newspaper men with vested interests, might have over shadowed the film. Perhaps it's because Bigelow is not concerned with presenting it as a blind flag waving action suspense movie and instead looks at an almost fruitless decade long search for Osama Bin Laden, warts and all.
In the way that David Fincher's brilliant Zodiac chronicled a lengthy period of dead ends and frustration, Zero Dark Thirty puts us in similar though much grander thought. Our star here, the ever watchable Jessica Chastain plays writer Mark Boals fictionalised Maya, an exceptional CIA operative, asked to aid in discovering information on the whereabouts of the mastermind behind the attacks in New York, Spain and London. Though the first 45 minutes of the film are concerned with "enhanced interrogation techniques" and a placement with some seasoned fellow ops (Jason Clarke and Jennifer Ehle) the bulk of the movie in fact focuses on mis-information and Mayas (and our own) palpable frustration at the stalling bureaucracy above her.
For a story to which we all know the ending Bigelow certainly succeeds in making a somewhat tense and obsessively involved film. Where Zero Dark Thirty falls down however is it's overly long run time and a documentary like insistence of truth and fact cleverly coating a fictional heroine. And, yes, there are some fictionally inserted torture scenes which lead (though not directly) to the killing of Bin Laden. Are war crimes an area correct to enrich in a film based on very real and fresh history? Does any of it really matter in film? After all the twisting, moralising and intensifying of war stories and especially historical battle scenes is something which has been ever-present in the story of film. When we look at the documented stories from Aru Ghraib and countless others have Bigelow and Boal really committed such a crime within the film when we all know the actual impact of torture during the Iraq war?
The controversy aside, there are elements to admire. Chastain's performance is a cleverly ran marathon, a slow steady perseverance which drives us through the search, kicking in to high gear only when necessary. A technical master in action, Bigelow cuts back on bangs and chases and focuses her energy and attention most characteristically only on the films finale, a 25 minute seal team raid; A night vision viewed nail bitter. However, once the cloud of how jarringly recent a history we are watching has dissipated, Zero Dark Thirty shows itself, for the most part, as a pretty cumbersome film.
It's an intriguing look at a strange period in our collective memory and it's a bold film for Bigelow to shape and stand behind but at 157 minutes it could have seriously benefited from a sharper eye, script, pair of scissors. For the most part, the thriller aspect of the film is a bit of drag and it really doesn't play to Bigelow's true strengths. Uncharacteristically for the wonderful Alexandre Desplat, his loud proud score seems murky and dull in moments where it should count. Bust mostly, the waiting and frustration here end up being born, on the audiences part, from the film itself not from an empathy of the characters mammoth hunt or of their situation. Even the end draws an empty reaction, similar to the death of Bin Laden in reality; a hopeless and costly full stop on a time most horrific.
