A Hunch That Paid Off
Kathryn Bigelow has risen in recent years to the status of master-filmmaker, particularly after her Oscar-winning masterpiece The Hurt Locker. She's been in the film game for much longer, but recently she's gained the sort of notoriety typically only reserved for A-list directors, where we eagerly await their next project with great anticipation. Rightfully so. The Hurt Locker was a perfect film in every way, shape, and form; from the life-filled, shaky camera work, to the brilliant editing, to the pitch-perfect and humanistic performances shrouded in danger and stress, to the writing and directing that builds tension to near-unbearable levels before letting go.
That was a film about a man on a mission; a man with a clear, straight-forward, undeterred goal. With Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow re-teams with Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal to deliver another war picture centering around a protagonist that is similar in her determination; she wants something, and no one will stop her from going after it. Even when her superiors doubt her determination, she is undeterred. Unlike most of Bigelow's films, which center around male action figures, Zero Dark Thirty takes on a procedural story with a female protagonist who enters the story as an outsider, both in experience and gender, and slowly builds her grit, determination, and attracts the admiration of her fellow co-workers.
Two critically acclaimed films this year have taken on the telling of a story with a massive disadvantage; Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln. The disadvantage being that we know the result of their primary plot. In Lincoln, we know that the Thirteenth Amendment will be passed. In this film, we know that Osama bin Laden will be found and killed. In most films, it is the uncertainty of the journey's success that keeps us on the edge of our seats. In these films, it is the elements of procedure that enthrall us; and even with the dramatic irony of Zero Dark Thirty, wherein we know the end result that the characters don't, the final half-hour, involving the raid of bin Laden's complex, is as exciting and edge-of-your-seat as any piece of cinema this year. It is realistic in its execution and technical qualities (the complex is naturally almost completely dark, we see most of the action through night vision), visceral in its intensity and danger, and suspenseful in its race against time.
The acting here is restrained and effective. Chastain, as our protagonist, is a woman who has never done anything else for the CIA other than searching for bin Laden. She was recruited out of high school, and this has been her life ever sense. She is as smart and confident as anybody in the film; at one point, a Marine says he believes in their mission because of her confidence. She is may be dismayed by false leads or hiccups, but she never lets them destroy her. She remains willful, and eventually it pays off.
The climax is as satisfying as any other this year. One of the greatest successes is that when Chastain, standing over the body of bin Laden, realizes that her decade-long work has paid off in success, the audience, like Chastain, feel not joy, or excitement, or pleasure, but simply relief. How could she feel anything else? That much work, leading to such a payoff, wouldn't end with a dance of rejoice. It would end with a gratitude of relief. To make the audience feel the same is one of the film's greatest successes, and not a minor one.
This is certainly a fine film. A better than "good" film. It is not, however, superior or even on-par with Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, and for two primary reasons. The Hurt Locker embellishes (to great success) in scene after scene of gut-wrenching tension. There are moments of that at here at work, and when they come they explode with excellence, but they are much fewer and further between. More importantly, however, is that Zero Dark Thirty doesn't take as much time to regard its characters. Aside from Chastain, most of the other characters are hollow in comparison; some of them come and go without much adieu, as if their presence was arbitrary. Even Chastain lacks the character development and three-dimensional traits of The Hurt Locker's Renner; not to mention the other supporting characters in that film, who greatly outweigh the supporting team of Zero in their complexities.
All in all, this is a superbly directed, amazingly and subtlety acted film that brings to life the realities of the decade-long hunt for bin Laden. The craftsmanship is stellar. And the finale is one of the best moments for cinema of 2012. It is, however, weakened in comparison to Bigelow's prior film. But on its own terms, it is still an amazing piece of procedural drama with brief moments of explosive action.
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