★★★☆☆
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle
Synopsis: After the 9/11 attacks, Maya (Jessica Chastain), a CIA officer is reassigned to the US embassy in Pakistan to help the search for Osama bin Laden, possibly the most notorious and deadly terrorist in the world. A decade long struggle to find leads tests Maya's capabilities as an officier on one of the hardest manhunts ever, her ability to not let her emotions take her over in the face of tragedy and the strength of her voice and convictions against those who doubt her.
Zero Dark Thirty is one of those films I'll never really be sure about - and not because of the ambiguity of the ending. The ambiguity lies in what we're meant to take away from this dramatisation of a real life manhunt. Sure, it sticks to the facts more or less, but is this about Maya being a strong female power in a world dominated by men? I'm not so sure that was the intention but that's what I took away from this. Maya is strong, fierce, independent and pushes her colleagues to persistently hear her and focus on the task at hand but ultimately she takes entirely too much credit for finding Bin Laden simply because she feels that she hasn't been taken seriously enough. Jessica Chastain definitely plays this role well but I feel like she can do so much more than this and this role limited her to being completely stone-faced and not dimensional enough. Other characters also seemed to float in and out with no real motive or inner conflict that made them interesting or even needed. At times, the script fell apart and included bizarre dialogue that didn't really have any purpose (or failed at whatever it was intended for). Almost every character was some kind of catalyst for the narrative and that really put me off. I did enjoy this film but it was far too long and the payoff was only okay. There was no real punch. Entertaining but disappointing.
