{"id":4325,"date":"2013-01-04T06:18:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T14:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=4325"},"modified":"2013-01-04T06:18:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T14:18:18","slug":"oscar-watch-zero-dark-thirty-is-lifeless-and-limp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=4325","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Watch: ZERO DARK THIRTY is Lifeless and Limp"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d chronicles the 10 years between the horrors of September 11th and the SPOILER ALERT killing of Osama Bin Laden. The film takes its time fitting the pieces of the puzzle together and presents a load of information that we are to believe are facts. But it\u2019s a guessing game trying to figure out what is true or fabricated and while screenwriter Mark Boal is said to have incredible access to actual top secret information, the film is merely based on true events. This trivialized \u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d and made the entire exercise impossible to invest in one single word.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nIt reminded me of Oliver Stone\u2019s \u201cW.\u201d from a couple of years back. Hell, this reminds me of any Stone picture that includes the name of a president in the title. As you watch the dramatization unfold there is always the doubt that lingers in the back of the mind. It would be a revelation to know that George W. never felt as if his father respected him and that was his driving force but that is only speculation. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d is speculation. While some of the tent pole events are probably facts, the filler cannot be. This is usually fine as I\u2019m sure that the last thirty minutes of \u201cArgo\u201d was massaged and manipulated for maximum effect but the SPOILER ALERT death of Bin Laden is too important to mess with.<\/strong>
\n The other issue with director Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s yarn is that she populated the story with lifeless characters. Our main focus is Maya (Jessica Chastain) whose sole focus in life is to SPOILER ALERT put a bullet in Bin Laden\u2019s head. We watch Maya raise in the ranks and gaze through her eyes as she witnesses torture (some fun waterboarding anyone?) and the internal components of the C.I.A. fight each other as the frantically search for the enemy. Maya is cold and distant and Chastain\u2019s performance is as focused as a laser beam but she is the core of the movie. This disconnection bleeds out through the movie and there becomes very little to relate to or care about. I like my films to be populated with breathing human beings, not emotionless robots.<\/strong>
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\n After two hours of bland Journalism Cinema that is so authentic with the insider dialogue that it becomes confusing to follow (I do not work at the C.I.A. and am not privy to much of the terminology used by the Agency) \u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d culminates with over thirty minutes of documentary-like footage of the Navy Seals heading to Pakistan to SPOILER ALERT kill Osama Bin Laden. The sequence is meticulous and feels authentic but would have had more punch if it didn\u2019t follow the subpar \u201cAct of Valor\u201d from a few months prior. Don\u2019t get me wrong, Bigelow\u2019s manhunt video game is better than that drivel but the two are comparable which only further lessens the blow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d is the biggest disappointment of the year. Overlong, lifeless and boring. Judging from the accolades the film is receiving from the National Board of Review and some of the Film Critic circles, I am in the minority here and I would love to hear your thoughts. Paired with \u201cThe Hurt Locker\u201d Bigelow has taken upon herself to capture a very dark chapter in our country\u2019s history. It\u2019s important work. I just wish was executed better.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d chronicles the 10 years between the horrors of September 11th and the SPOILER ALERT killing of Osama Bin Laden. The film takes its time fitting the pieces of the puzzle together and presents a load of information that we are to believe are facts. But it\u2019s a guessing game trying to figure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10232,10648,11508,15501,24761],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-james-gandolfini","tag-jessica-chastain","tag-kathryn-bigelow","tag-oscar-contenders-2013","tag-zero-dark-thirty-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}