Zero Dark Thirty

Plot:

“A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L Team 6 in May 2011.”

Cast:

Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, and Chris Pratt

Thoughts:

We all know the story but we have no idea how it was executed. When I found out the plot behind Zero Dark Thirty, I got psyched. We were finally going to get some answers! However, after watching the film, I feel as if answering our questions was never part of the plan. What WAS the intention behind this film? It’s a pity that the message is so unclear.

     Zero Dark Thirty opens with grim depictions of torture scenes of detainees to gather information. (I’m not one for torture scenes but these weren’t TOO difficult to watch, in case you were wondering) After that, nothing really happens. Little scenes are scattered here and there: Agents sitting around a table discussing the whereabouts of Bin Laden, characters watching interrogation videos that lead to nowhere… (I don’t know if it was just me but I had a difficult time keeping up during the meetings with the analysts. Subtitles and back stories on names might have helped me understand the decisions they made and the paths they decided to take) But the real thrill comes from the assassination attempts and the bombings (especially the ones that you don’t see coming). But after a few too many assassination attempts, you know what’s going to happen so the thrills begin to disintegrate, especially because Jessica Chastain’s character gives us absolutely no reason to care about her well-being. We have no idea where she came from, no idea what’s motivating her, and have no proof that she has any emotions other than annoyance and anger. The only things we know about her character is that she was recruited to the CIA right after high school. But it’s not only Jessica Chastain. The acting in this movie is just bad (Except for Mark Duplass! His cameo only lasted a few minutes but he managed to steal the show; it wasn’t that difficult though, he was just the only person to show any kind of emotion whatsoever. And I give him praise for being the only person in the movie to question Chastain’s badass-ery, after she blankly referred to herself as “the MF who found this place”).

     The middle of this movie is very slow. I knew how it was going to end and after a while, I found myself wishing they’d just skip to it. Jessica Chastain spends this part of the movie trying to convince the men that she knows what she’s talking about. After she gives a few cringe-worthy lines (she tries way too hard trying to look like a badass in front of all of the men), the dialogue becomes extremely forgettable and gives off the vibe that they were just trying to make the movie longer. She spends so much of this movie trying to convince everyone that she’s right, I fully expected the end of the film to be filled with high fives and “I told you so’s.”

     But what we get is a very boring, non-triumphant finish. The end of the movie is chock full of night vision, killings of innocent people without so much as an even second glance, and the murder of…  someone.

 SPOILER ALERT. You’ve been warned.

After the body bag is unzipped, Chastain’s character takes a peek inside. She confirms that it is Osama and then she gets cozy in a plane and cries.

The indecisiveness of this last scene is what broke the movie for me. Why is she crying? Was it because she had spent most of her life trying to find Osama Bin Laden and now she has nothing? Or, after realizing that the body in the bag was NOT Bin Laden, did she lie to cover her own ass (she told everyone she was 100% certain he was there)? I’m not trying to scream CONSPIRACY but the lack of flair after shooting down Bin Laden in the film is what made me question whether or not it was actually him. I don’t know what I was expecting –fireworks or a parade immediately after his death- but I was expecting SOMETHING. After being gunned down, and the question is asked (“Do you know what you just did?”), the soldiers continue moving as if nothing had happened. Didn’t they get the guy they were there for?

     After watching the movie, I found out online that many people had a problem with director Kathryn Bigelow’s “lack of effort in representing such recent events in a realistic manner." In this film, Abbottabad is an Arabic-speaking city even though the national language of Pakistan is Urdu. That’s not really what bothered me. What bothered me is that, after an event so recent, you think they’d get the facts right. If they got THAT wrong, why should I believe that anything in this movie is right?

Warning:

If you want answers, don’t see this movie. If you’re looking for a truly great movie, don’t see this movie. If you’re looking to be slightly entertained but mostly bored, go ahead and see Zero Dark Thirty but I’d say you really don’t have to.