Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Sometimes you can have 15 good ideas and kill them all off with one bad one. Thus came this somewhat messy drama about the hunt for courier of Osama Bin Laden.

The bad idea is the character Maya. She brings nothing to the story. Poor Jessica Chastain is the skidmark of the cast in this (naturally there were awards to get for her). I suppose Bigelow wanted to add a conscience into the horrors, but it's misplaced Hollywood'ism of the worst sort in every single scene in the first third. She comes up with some softer, smarter interrogation techniques, making it even more moralizing. It gets a bit more believable as she gets so caught up in her work (even downright obsessive after a while), that she starts to accept all the torture (and even adopts the style of her mentor), but it's still a pedestrian character that lacks exceptionally in depth. And therefore interest.

Jason Clarke, however, is absolutely brilliant in his callousness and thorough demeanour well flanked by Reda Kateb as the broken Ammar (they give us a deep impact of a start). He's quickly sidelined though. Another spectacle is James Gandolfini. Such a small part, such great impact. Just a fat diplomat with ugly hair and a quiet voice. Now there's a character of quality and a casting-choice of sheer brilliance.Who needs to yell when everyone in the room knows you are the most powerful person there.


The film is slow-paced and often dialogue-based. I like that. It is smart and at times demanding to follow. It's at its best when dealing with politics. Overpaid bureaucrats in quiet hallways, threatening each other in most diplomatic and friendly ways, leaving the recipient pondering the consequences. However, Bigelow fails to come up with any suspense to mention until the very end, and even the parts you don't remember from the news is fairly predictable.

The story itself isn't bad. Furthermore, it has a keen sense for detail. The problem is that the main character is the worst character in the movie. Less than believable and stereotyped in development. And there is no real explanation for the development either.


A very popular and predictable Hollywood-technique with films like these is the random inserting of archive footage from actual incidents to remind the viewer how real this is. Call me a cynic, but I'm tired of it. It's manipulative and has been done to death.

I thought "The Hurt Locker" was overrated. This flick is vastly so. I suppose the world respects Bigelow much more as a director than I do. Does no one remember "K19: The Widowmaker" and "Point Break"?

6/10