After the usual Easter Festivities of church and brunch, the Missus and I found ourselves with an afternoon to kill and although it turned out to be not quite warm enough to lure us outside (those days are coming soon, though, I expect) we did score a couple of movies that we had both wanted to see and had a mini movie night kicking things off with Zero Dark Thirty.
There's been a lot of controversy surrounding this movie, which I'll cover in a minute but one thing I liked right away was that the filmmakers pulled no punches and punctured any illusions the viewer might have right away by introducing two characters- Dan (Jason Clarke) and the central character, Maya (Jessica Chastain) who are conducting an interrogation of a detainee named Ammar. It's a fairly graphic scene right off the bat but I felt that it let the viewer know that they were going to be realistic about the story they were telling, they weren't going to do some kind of hagiographic puff piece about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and it basically says that despite what we'd like to believe, the United States, on occasion does very ugly things in dark corners in the name of defending freedom. Whether that's justified or not is something that the film wisely leaves in the hands of the viewers.
After some harsh interrogation, Ammar (Reda Kateb) gives up the name Abu Ahmed who he says is a personal courier for Bin Laden- and this is in 2003, where the film begins. The bulk of the story involves Maya, who displays a single-minded zeal about tracking down Bin Laden, sifting through scraps of information, detainee interrogations and interrogating detainees themselves, trying to get the one big break she's looking for in the case. The trail goes cold several times (another connection she finds is to a man named Abu Faraj- but under interrogation, Faraj refuses to give up the name Abu Ahmed) and Maya survives bombings, loses one of her close friends and sees Dan transfer back to CIA Headquarters in Washington, warning her that politics are changing and their harsh interrogation techniques are falling out of favor.
When a detainee says that the picture they have of Abu Ahmed is actually of a man that died in Afghanistan, the trail appears to go completely dead- and Maya's efforts seem to be for naught but are soon revived by the news that the photograph they had believed to be of Abu Ahmed might actually be of his brother. Soon enough, they're back on the hunt and eventually with one purchase of a Lamborgini for a Kuwaiti source get a tap on his Ahmed's phone and eventually track him to the compoud in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The CIA keeps the compound under surveillance for months but are unable to provide visial photographic proof that Bin Laden is there.
Despite that, the National Security Advisor tasks the CIA with coming up with a plan to capture or kill Bin Laden if he can be confirmed to be inside- top CIA officials (including Dan) meet with the Director (James Gandolfini) and assess the chances of Bin Laden being inside at 60%-80%. Maya (also in attendence) puts it at 95%-100% and eventually the raid is authorized. The raid is successful, the body is brought back to the US Base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Maya visually confirms that the body they have is, in fact, Osama Bin Laden. The film ends with Maya alone on a military plane, unsure of where she wants to go, weeping quietly.
I think it's difficult to tell stories when people already know the ending. You start this movie knowing full well what it's about and knowing exactly how it's going to end and yet the filmmakers managed to make a gripping, tense, brutally realistic film telling that story. Realism drips from every frame of this thing- through the portrayal of torture of detainees to the tradecraft and surveillance techniques used throughout to track down Bin Laden and the military raid itself. (I mean, not knowing or having been in the Navy Seals, I'll take their word for it.) Yet despite all that, there are some tense, thrilling moments and you find yourself biting your nails and actually getting nervous about what's going to happen.
This film wasn't free from controversy either- filmmakers were accused of getting improper access to to classified materials (so far, a charge that hasn't been proven), they were accused of politicizing the film with a release so close to the Presidential election (President Obama plays no part in the film and is seen only once, in passing in a television interview when he still Candidate Obama) and they were also accused, funniliy enough by film critics aplenty of being pro-torture.
I can't speak to the first charge and the second charge never really bothered me (I think the economy was far more important in the election than Bin Laden or when some film was released) but as to the third charge, well, I'd say it's tricky. The impression the film left me with was a sort of 'just the facts' mentality that was designed to let viewers draw their own judgement about the issue. I didn't get the sense they were condoning or condemning the practice but they weren't about to sugar coat it either which I liked a lot. It's hard to watch, I'll admit but you can't really tell the story of Zero Dark Thirty without portraying it.
Overall: Gripping, tense, thrilling with beautifully taut performances from the entire cast. I can see why this was nominated for Best Picture and although I haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook yet- so I can't judge Jessica Chastain's performance against Jennifer Lawrence's but one of these days Chastain is going to bring home an Oscar (she won a Golden Globe for this role)- and she'll richly deserve it. My verdict: **** out of ****.
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