Zero Dark Thirty

SPOILER ALERT! Osama Gets Killed: Zero Dark Thirty Review

One of the greatest actresses of this time is able to help make Zero Dark Thirty recommendable (Courtesy of Forbes)

Zero Dark Thirty begins with a blank screen. Hectic 911 phone calls are heard during the haywire of September 11th, 2001, culminating in a caller in the World Trade Center telling the woman on the other end “I’m gonna die, aren’t I? I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die…” This is a dark but artistically impressive start to Zero Dark Thirty, which began with ferocity and urgency but ultimately failed to deliver to its seemingly powerful potential. 

Maya (the outstanding Jessica Chastain, last year's breakout star from The Help and The Tree of Life) is a CIA agent assigned to uncovering al-Qadea news while working in Pakistan's U.S. Embassy. Initially, she shakily observes another agent, Dan, as he tortures a connection to Osama bin Laden by waterboarding him, depriving him of sleep, and locking him in a box half his height. After a few long years, Dan decides to abandon his role in the bin Laden project, but Maya doesn't. Dan's desire to relocate his services to D.C. prompts her to say that she can't catch bin Laden from D.C. She gradually shifts from passive to aggressive in her decade-long drive to see Osama dead.

Maya slaves for the next several years over a computer screen trying to locate bin Laden's courier, holding onto the conjecture that if she locates the courier, she locates the man who caused 9/11. When she finds his possible location, others refuse to believe her and shoot down her speculations, despite her certainty. Her confidence and assertiveness lead to approval for the successful raid that rids the world of Osama bin Laden. 

The raid scene, where the soldiers enter the compound where bin Laden is believed to be hiding, was disappointing. The idea to withhold musical score during this scene was smart, but my hope was that the stress the soldiers felt were felt tenfold by the audience. That would've been great filmmaking, but this was scene wasn't great filmmaking. Argo and The Impossible were way more intense, but this should've (and easily could've) outdone both of them. Like the entire movie, the raid scene was overlong and lacked structure.

The most worthwhile aspect of Zero Dark Thirty is yet another amazing performance from Chastain, who was robbed of an Oscar last year by her Help co-star, Octavia Spencer. At first, her subtle presence failed to captivate me. However, her escalation of Maya's character from a timid novice to a powerhouse heroine is impressive. Sadly, it's not quite enough to get her an Oscar this year in my eyes, with Naomi Watts and Jennifer Lawrence having given more worthy performances. But yes, I was impressed by Chastain, and doubt I will ever be unimpressed by her sheer talent for the screen.

Once Dan is out of the story, the movie loses a bit of its focus, and remains mostly uneventful for a good amount of time. It jumps from following different al-Qaeda leads to daily activities of Maya and her colleagues until Maya discovers bin Laden's possible residence, with a few explosions and casualties along the way. At this point, the focus returns, and there is some excitement and a tense atmosphere over the pending assassination of Osama.

The movie's ending was rushed and abrupt. It ends about 5 minutes after bin Laden's body is penetrated with bullets. What screenwriter Mark Boal should have done is sacrificed some of the less important scenes in the middle for an aftermath sequence, which could've made the movie more worthwhile. Instead, Maya's fulfillment didn't come across the same way to the audience, like it should have. The movie is mainly driven by its concept, and could've been much more eventful and recommendable. I still recommend it, but if you take as long to see this movie as it took for the United States government to kill bin Laden, I'd forgive you. 

After the movie, I asked my friend Luke if he liked it. He said yes. When I asked why, he said “I don't know. I just hate bin Laden.” I do too, Luke. That’s why I was hoping for this movie to be more of a showcase of triumph of American justice over terrorism and a tribute to those whose lives were lost on 9/11 and those who ended this evil man’s life. But it wasn’t. 

Rating: 3.5/5