Yesterday, I finally saw Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain as Maya, the CIA agent who with single-minded determination focused everything on finding Osama Bin Laden.
The movie is Rated R, and rightly so. [To find out why, visit this link to IMDB.com] I used to be able to watch all kinds of movies. My kids can't believe now that I used to enjoy horror flicks, because I have no desire to see them now. As I've matured in my faith, some of what I used to tolerate actually turns my stomach. Such is the case with the interrogation scenes of this movie. I can't even tell you how bad they are, or if they're bad at all, because as soon as I saw what was happening, I fast forwarded to the next scene. But such was the climate of post-9/11 questioning of suspects, so it's something we should know was done. Still, to watch it was a little too much for me.
Overall, the docudrama feel to the movie wasn't something I liked and knowing the outcome, I didn't have any "edge of your seat" expectancies like I did with Argo. For me, this sums up why Argo won best picture and Zero Dark Thirty did not. Argo did an amazing job of creating suspense even though you already knew the ending.
Still, Jessica Chastain's Oscar-nominated performance was worthy of the nod and I hope to see her receive more great roles in the future. But compared to the Oscar winning Argo, or the other nominees that I've seen, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook, I'm uncertain how this film fell into the same category as those great movies. Not to deter you from watching the movie if it's been on your must-see list. I would give it a solid B+, I just didn't feel it was on the same level as the aforementioned films.
I agree! The beginning scenes were difficult to watch and I didn't fully watch them, either. We recently watched Argo, too and thought it was so good! As you said, it really did a great job of maintaining suspense even when you knew how it was going to end.
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