But she shows she has the chops to embody the pic’s iron-nerved protag, holding her own in the testosterone-thick world of CIA black sites and top-level Washington boardrooms. Stepping up from a year busy with supporting roles, Chastain may at first seem an unusual choice for the lead. military success in recent memory as the work of a single woman, “Maya” (Jessica Chastain), inspired by a real CIA analyst Boal discovered during his research, and presented here as the only government official convinced that bin Laden wasn’t “hiding in some cave” (Bush’s words), but somewhere she could find him. Bush goes entirely unseen, while auds’ only glimpse of President Obama is during a 2008 campaign interview), the filmmakers effectively give gender politics the whole stage: The pic presents the highest-profile U.S. But Bigelow and Boal reduce the spectacular assault on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to the last half-hour in order to dedicate the rest of the film to the lesser-known backstory.īy forcing partisan politics into the wings (President George W. The title, military-speak for half-past midnight, refers to the Al Qaeda leader’s time of death, theoretically promising a flashy first-hand account of the raid itself.

Opportunely held for release until after the presidential election had played out, “Zero Dark Thirty” arrives shrouded in nearly as much mystery as bin Laden’s whereabouts before news broke that a team of Navy Seals had successfully terminated his life on May 2, 2011.

Chris pratt zero dark thirty