Maya (Jessica Chastain) is a CIA agent whose superiors describe her as a “killer.” That’s meant as a compliment. And that’s bad news for a guy who might not be aware of her existence, but will eventually pay the price for being her target: Osama bin Laden.
Initially taken aback by tactics that her colleagues on assignment in the Middle East employ in the war on terror — including waterboarding — Maya quickly adapts. From her perspective, it’s a question not of morality but of expediency.
Before long, she’s so committed to extracting information, whatever it takes, that fellow agent Dan (Jason Clarke) warns her that the folks back in Washington are getting a bit concerned about what’s going on in the name of homeland security.
But Maya isn’t interested in politics — and that extends to her attitude toward higher-ups with little patience for her latest ideas about where bin Laden is and how to get to him.
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Undeterred, she comes up with a plan to bring him down.
“Zero Dark Thirty” is a thrilling yet challenging film that trusts the audience to stick with it as it chronicles Maya’s progress. Working from a fact-based screenplay by Mark Boal, with whom she collaborated on “The Hurt Locker,” director Kathryn Bigelow delivers a film that’s exhilarating in the way that it generates tension despite the fact that we know bin Laden will indeed be caught and killed. And Chastain is terrific as a hero who just won’t stop until that happens.
Some have called into question the film’s portrayal of torture, and its role in eliminating bin Laden. Without getting inside Bigelow’s head, it’s reasonable to assert that to depict an injustice is not necessarily to endorse it. Unlike too many films these days, “Zero Dark Thirty” dares to embrace complexity.
And that makes it not just state-of-the-art entertainment, but a great film.
What “Zero Dark Thirty” • Four stars out of four • Rating R • Run time 2:37 • Content Strong violence including brutal disturbing images, and language