"Zero Dark Thirty" Review

Remember all those teaser ads on ESPN? You know, the ones for Zero Dark Thirty, that movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. That movie with all the Oscar hype. Remember how action-packed and gripping those TV spots looked?

Well, on Friday morning I got up at 9am, an hour far too early to be getting ready to head out to the multiplex, but I was super psyched to see Kathryn Bigelow's latest, and it was the only time that worked for me. I loved the director's work on The Hurt Locker, so I thought a thriller inspired by the true events of the greatest manhunt in history might be a harrowing time, and a sure-fire contender for the Best Picture Oscar.

And besides, the ads looked promising, right?

Seems like they were wrong. Zero Dark Thirty failed to meet my expectations and earns my vote for the most disappointing movie of 2012.

In all fairness, it's not that it's bad. In fact, I think it's very well made from a technical perspective, and the acting is terrific. Jessica Chastain is nothing short of phenomenal, but without her, I think the film may have been unwatchable. She deserves as many awards as she can get for saving Zero Dark Thirty with her masterful performance.
SPOILERS: What ruined the film for me was its pacing and tedium. Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal's best written line comes from Chastain when she tells the director of the CIA (James Gandolfini) that she's the "motherf***er who found this place, sir" when briefing him on the layout of Bin Laden's compound. Otherwise, the entire film is as slow and limp as a snail caught in molasses in January. Things only pick up when Seal Team Six is called into action for the film's final half-hour, depicting the siege of Bin Laden's compound with the same nerve-shredding panache that made The Hurt Locker great. Reading the articles and looking at the photos in magazines and newspapers that covered the historic events depicted in Zero Dark Thirty would have probably been just as tediously exciting, if not more so, than watching this movie. That's a nice money-saving idea, too.

I wasn't interested in the torture controversy surrounding this movie, and that didn't spoil my expectations going in. I've seen dozens of movies depicting torture, most of them far more brutal than what's shown in Zero Dark Thirty. You'd think violent scenes like this might be worthy of attention, and they are. But in this particular film, it wasn't enough to hold my interest or to get me emotionally invested. Maybe that says something about the desensitizing power of violence in the media, but that's beside the point.
Since I was unimpressed with the narrative, that task fell on the shoulders of leading lady Jessica Chastain (The Help) who I mentioned before as being the heart, soul and saving grace of Zero Dark Thirty. Most of the movie's best scenes are with her alone, quietly reacting to the pressure and circumstances of being the spearhead of the manhunt for Bin Laden. A magnificent job by the actress; one that I think is the best performance from a lead actress this year.

On the whole, Zero Dark Thirty isn't as riveting as the ads make it out to be. It's a film that I think holds lots of promise and delivers on less than it should. If not for Ms. Chastain, I think the entire film would be lost. High marks are earned for her performance. Aside from that, the movie did not live up to my expectations and is decent at best.
The best film of 2012? Not by a sniper's long shot.
For another spy thriller based on actual events that's actually thrilling, see Argo.

2.5 OF 4 STARS