I remember where I was when I heard that the USA got Osama Bin Laden. I was at home watching TV when my brother Matt came into the room and said “We got him. We got Osama.” And I remember I was very happy– what a great American moment. And I wondered how they did it. If it was anything like the tactical raid presented in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, it was very exciting and suspenseful to watch. I knew that the Americans were going to win but seeing it carried out was very cool to see. At the beginning of the movie, the director says via text “The events in this movie are based on first-hand accounts”, so I suppose I will have to take their word for it. The presentation in this movie was very interesting, suspenseful (again), and it takes a good look at everything that went into the ten-year search for him, at least that is the time spanned during the movie. Seeing the people involved and what they were going through (again, based on ‘first-hand’ accounts’) really added another dimension and made this movie one of the more enjoyable of the films that were nominated.
The big story in ZDT is the performance of Lead Actress Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, The Help). She plays Maya, a CIA operative that takes one of the leads in order to find “UBL”, as he is referred to in the movie (“U” being Usama, as it is sometimes spelled). During the movie I couldn’t help but notice the unwavering determination and confidence that Chastain shows during pretty much every scene. At first she looks very nervous because her character is so young, but it quickly changes once she gets in deep into her mission. As she declares at one point in the film when someone asks what else has she done with her life: “I haven’t done anything else.” This is her sole mission, her one purpose, and anytime that a failure is present she will not let it happen. It gets to the point where she is yelling at her boss to get things done, and she will not take “no” for an answer. Her performance must have taken a lot of energy, because if I know anything from acting in plays or taking classes, holding a motivation and mood that long gets exhausting. But she does it flawlessly, and is a front-runner for the Best Actress award.
The rest of the movie is like a detective story; a friend of mine likened it to The Zodiac (the good one with Jake Gyllenhaal). To me, the movie worked well when it showed the people involved, and it made me think of how Bigelow was good at doing that with Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker. In that sense, these two movies are similar, although in ZDT, there is more time spent away from Chastain, especially during the climax when she the raid is happening.
I believe ZDT has a good chance to win Best Picture, but I think the race is going to be close. In any case, this movie had quite a bit of “AMURICA” going on, and was definitely less depressing than The Hurt Locker, which I think makes it more accessible. Chastain is very good, and co-star Jason Clarke (as Dan) was very enjoyable as well.
There is some torture going on in this movie during the first act so that might not be for everyone. After that it becomes a suspenseful ride to see what will happen next. At least I could take solace in the fact that I knew that, just like at Zero Dark Thirty on May 2, 2011, we got him.
Michael Night's Miscellany 