Review of Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Mloy X — 29 Oct 2014

Maya (Jessica Chastain): [slightly irritated] So what does this Baluchi guy look like?

Abu Faraj al-Libbi (Yoav Levi): Tall, long white beard, thin, walks with a cane.

Maya (Jessica Chastain): [smirks] Kinda like Gandalf.

Abu Faraj al-Libbi (Yoav Levi): Who?

This is not really my genre of film and I've had this on my TiVo queue for the longest time because this film had such good press during the Academy Awards, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it. So, (obviously) finally I did and it was actually great-- I mean beside the all too real and gritty torture scene; everything else was interesting. I have a new found respect for the people whose job it is to do this: from the interrogators, the soldiers and down even to the pencil pushers sitting behind a desk knowing that they are working in a country so volatile that sh*t can just hit the fan at any moment, how does anyone work like that? The entire cast was amazing and performed so convincingly that I completely forgot they were actors- they all just embodied each of their role so completely that they were the characters they portrayed in the film, no question about it. I've always loved Jessica Chastain as an actress from the first film I ever watched her in "The Debt", she just has that enigmatic presence. Jason Clarke (who played Dan) was superb-- he was definitely scary, I wouldn't want to get on that guy's bad side. The rest of the cast was equally awesome: Kyle Chandler (Joseph Bradley), Jennifer Ehle (Jessica), Harold Perrineau (Jack), Simon Abkarian (the detainee in the beginning of the film)...all simply amazing performances!!! This was totally gripping and the final scenes were just mind-blowing: the details, the planning, the execution and the way the soldiers "collected" the data and "sorted" it was just wild. Wow. Also, mad props to director Kathryn Bigelow; granted this film wasn't as good as "The Hurt Locker" but she does have fresh and unique directing style that I'm fast becoming a fan of. Overall, the film was very interesting, just the military procedures in the end alone was engaging enough to tune-in for, but the rest of the process was also educational. Definitely worth another viewing, if ever it comes on the telly.