Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty marks the second collaboration between director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter/journalist Mark Boal, after 2008's multi-award winning The Hurt Locker.
This time Bigelow and Boal go broader with the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

The film recounts the decade-long search through the eyes of Central Intelligence analyst, Maya.
The film begins after the events of 9/11, with Maya (played with real verve by Jessica Chastain) assigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan.

Despite obvious discomfort at what she first encounters, Maya takes everything at face value.
For the american employees and recruits stationed in this part of the world, there is seemingly no life beyond their work. Anyone trying to integrate in to their new found surroundings usually falls foul.
Just as Maya approaches her work, so too do the film-makers - presenting everything at face value and without biased (more importantly, nothing overtly American or political)
Instead the film is loaded with detail, from the rich characters to their surroundings and beyond. Consequently the time and effort that went in to this lengthy man-hunt is palpable.

The flow of time is something the film-makers pull off magnificently. Orders from on high reassign key players, others grow weary and move on voluntarily - while the main character of Maya falls deeper and deeper in to her obsessive role.

Zero Dark Thirty is Bigelows most cerebral and adult film to date. Were it not for the last act, one could be forgiven for thinking they were watching another director at work.
Plans were originally in place to end the film differently. As it transpired, the search for bin Laden came to a close in 2011 - thus presenting Bigelow and co with a thrilling final act.
The Bigelow of old is at work here, ratcheting up the tension and putting the viewer in the thick of the action.
The fact that it all happened for real adds much to proceedings - this is where the Bigelow of new shows subtle restraint and sensitivity.

With Near Dark, Point Break and Strange Days on her resume, Zero Dark Thirty shows the growth of an exquisite action director, becoming globally aware.
Having focussed on a world at war with both this and The Hurt Locker, Bigelow is looking to answer the question that's stumped many - to what end?

4/5

Poster image courtesy: http://www.empireonline.com