Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty begins, as any other movie, with the logos of the production companies that made and distributed it. No one cares about them. Judging by the amount of chatter in the audience, they could almost be regarded as part of the countless trailers, not as part of the movie. Then, Kathryn Bigelow, the director, does something highly unusual. The screen fades to black, leaving the audience in a completely dark and silent environment. Bigelow has the film begin not with an image, but with sound. Some white noise. A woman's distressed voice. She is a victim trapped inside one of the twin towers, making a 911 emergency call. The building collapses. White noise. Those chilling, harrowing opening moments earned everyone's undivided attention. There were no phones, and no lights. No one could be heard talking or eating popcorn. This was, at the same time, the most peaceful and distressing movie going experience I have had in years. 

The movie becomes a procedural. It follows, in detail, the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden by Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young CIA operative. While watching the film, I kept thinking of David Fincher's  Zodiac which followed the still unresolved investigation of the Zodiac killer. While making the film, Fincher believed that he had to get everything exactly as it happened. If the information he wanted to use for the film was not in the police reports, he discarded it immediately. I do not know what details of the investigation are accurate in Zero Dark Thirty.  I do know, however, that the way Maya gains, analyzes and builds upon the evidence she finds feels authentic. Even if elements of the real search were altered, the search onscreen is immensely detailed, convincing, and engaging.  What else can one ask from a fiction film? 

When asked by the CIA director what other tasks she had accomplished for the agency, Maya answers that she had done nothing else. We learn she had been recruited right out of high school with the sole task of hunting Osama Bin Laden. It is fascinating to see how Maya's obsession grows over the course of the film as she carefully and repeatedly reviews documents, videos, pictures, and just about any piece of information that might lead to Bin Laden's location while at the same time alienating all friends and coworkers. At one point, Maya starts writing  on the window of her boss's office the number of days the CIA has known the location of Bin Laden without taking action.

"I know certainty freaks you guys out, but its 100%"

Not only is Maya obsessed with every aspect of the hunt, but she is certain that she is right 100% of the time. She is not hesitant to confront her bosses when they are making mistakes, or to discard popular leads she think will go nowhere while laboring over seemingly inconsequential pieces of evidence no one in the CIA thinks are worth exploring. Maya could come off as highly unlikeable, but she doesn't because she somehow manages to be  right 100% of the time. Her superiors recognize it, the audience recognizes it, and that is why we bear with her for 2 1/2+ hours (or, in the case of her superiors, 10 years). 

The film reaches its climax with the raid on Bin Laden's compound. It is not an overwhelming, fast paced action sequence. Instead, like the film itself, it is deliberate, methodical, and full of nearly unbearable suspense. The most effective bits from the sequence are the point of view shots of the marines (shown through green night vision goggles) as they slowly unlock doors, clear hallways, search rooms, and get ever closer to Osama Bin Laden.  

The chase and the raid are so thoroughly realized that once Bin Laden is killed, his death feels almost anti-climactic. The film shows all of the sacrifices made, all of the lives lost in the search for this one man. By the end it asks the question, was it was worth the trouble?  "I thought there would be cheering," commented a friend of mine who saw the movie with me. Again, not one member of the audience made a sound while exiting the theatre. 

Jessica Chastain is incredible in showing Maya's determination and unwillingness to give up or slow down the pace of her investigation even after multiple near death experiences and assassination attempts. Maya keeps up this hardcore facade until the very last moments of the film. The change in Maya after Bin Laden's death, conveyed wordlessly by Chastain, is astonishing. A question is posed to Maya, as well as to the audience. Now that Bin Laden is dead, "where do you want to go?" 

Verdict- 4/4
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) R 2h 37min. 
screenshots from http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/zerodarkthirty/