Film Review - Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty by film director Katherine Bigelow is a fictional account of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, leading eventually to his location and assassination. Parts of the film are based on events as far as known with the rest being scripted-in. The story is centred on the lead character, Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young CIA intelligence analyst who has spent her entire career hunting for bin Laden and not much else. The film follows a chronological sequence of events incorporating actual historical incidents into the fictional narrative (such as the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad) weaving fact and fiction into the suspense of the hunt. Internal political divisions in the CIA portray effectively the often contrary nature of opinions and information which influence intelligence work and the ease in which critical information can be overlooked. The baseline in intelligence is often merely a matter of gut instinct when reaching a conclusion, a point which Maya forcefully pursues in her quest to find her target. The film garnered controversy for its portrayal of torture of al Qaeda prisoners in the early scenes however in reality, there are far more confronting images in many other films. Zero Dark Thirty was also criticised for the unattributed use of actual recordings of 9/11 victims from the hijacked flights which hit the World Trade Centre Towers. The film has high production values overall, a reasonable pace and effective acting but remains trapped with an unlikely story line relaying on a single character to carry the plot.