The much lauded film Zero Dark Thirty opened in the Seattle/Tacoma area January 11th so I attended a late night viewing to see what all the buzz is about. Nominated for five academy awards including best film and best actress I figured this would be an exciting film to see. Not hardly. In the trailers for the film most of the footage shown is of the raid on the Abbottabad compound where Osama bin Laden was killed. Leading me to believe that a good portion of the film would focus on the operation and the special forces who conducted it. Nothing could be further from the truth. With a running time of 2 hours 37 minutes perhaps 30 minutes is devoted to the operation that brought bin Laden to justice. So little time is spent on the characters of the special forces unit that they come off as stereotypical and cartoonish. The focus on the "hunt for bin Laden" is entirely on the character of Maya, a young woman CIA agent/operative? It is hard to tell what she is what because so much of the film goes unexplained.
I just don't understand why this film would focus on such a small aspect of the investigation. Is it so surprising that women would now play pivotal roles in the CIA? Countless women have served in Iran and Afghanistan and many have been killed in that service. A more moving and compelling story which I hope a director will tell one day.
Yet with little to no narrative a film that aims at artistic expression instead becomes confusing. Don't get me wrong, Zero Dark Thirty is a good film but I can't understand all the accolades this film is receiving. Film critic after film critic is declaring this the best film of 2012. Really? The film begins with the use of torturing detainees in the gathering of information. Much controversy had been paid to how torture is portrayed in this film and how it is presented as an effective tool in gathering accurate information. I don't want to get to get into moral issues, after all this is a movie review. But I do feel that if a director presents torture as an interrogation tool then they have a responsibility to present the good, bad and the ugly. I think the good and ugly are shown but as investigations into "enhanced interrogation techniques" have shown, a mountain of misinformation was given by people who were mercilessly tortured. That is the bad because it is not only counterproductive to what is trying to be accomplished it removes any moral high ground that the United States can claim. Sorry, I got off track for a moment there.
Now back to the movie. After bit of information is gathered the film shows Maya trying to follow each lead and tidbit in her relentless pursuit of bin Laden. Maya has been recruited by the CIA right out of high school and this is her only job. It takes years to make contacts, cross check information and run down leads. I felt like I was watching the process in real time. So much of this movie takes place in offices with people sitting in front of computer screens or arguing in hallways. BORING That kind of behavior can be observed in almost any work place. Granted these people are acting in the national interest, but there is nothing here that makes working for the CIA appear romantic, interesting, or even the least bit fun. The rest of the film for me plodded along while trying to build tension along the way. For me it failed in this aspect. I felt a lot more tension and enjoyed Argo twice as much. For me Zero Dark Thirty is a good film but the best film of the year? No way.
I would give this film a grade of B
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