![]() She will go to any and all extremes to kill him. But we understand her fully in the present. Maya is not a traditionally "three-dimensional character." We know little about her past and nothing about her future. Zero Dark Thirty is as much about the central character as it is about the hunt for bin Laden, and the genius of the production, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, is that it successfully balances these two elements. Although the last 30 minutes follows the SEALs, Maya is never far from the viewer's attention. Once her cover is blown and she is forced to return home, she continues to push the operation from Langley. After Dan returns to the United States, Maya takes over his role she becomes tenacious and proves capable of intimidating her boss, Special Agent Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler). Apprenticed to a veteran interrogator named Dan (Jason Clarke), she witnesses him torture and intimidate a suspected al-Qaeda prisoner. The chronicle of events unfolds like a superior spy story, with Maya initially being thrust into a situation where she's in over her head. In between, it follows the efforts of a CIA agent, Maya (Jessica Chastain), to locate Osama bin Laden in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and the mission, led by Navy SEAL Patrick (Joel Edgerton), to "take out" UBL. Zero Dark Thirty opens on 9/11 (with the fall of the Twin Towers being depicted only in sound as the screen remains dark) and concludes on May 2, 2011. The fascination and suspense comes from seeing how the events leading to that moment are dramatized. We all know it how it will end: with Osama bin Laden in a body bag. The story, culled as it has been from recent headlines, is not full of surprises or revelations. With all apologies to Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain rivets the attention. ![]() Unlike Argo, however, it provides a fascinating and powerfully portrayed central character. Like Argo, it interweaves elements of the historical record with fictional embellishments and speculation to create a tapestry depicting the sometimes fatal front-line struggles of intelligence agency operatives. ![]() Zero Dark Thirty is a compelling contemporary thriller with the added benefit of also being an engrossing character study. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |