Zero Dark Thirty, released several months ago to significant critical acclaim, continued Bigelow's career in the direction she paved with 2008's The Hurt Locker. Zero Dark Thirty follows Maya, a young CIA analyst who becomes obsessed with finding Osama bin Laden. I saw the film on it's initial release, and have not had the chance to watch it again, but the film truly stuck in my head- and not in the good way.
ZDT follows an unfortunate trend of films that have received very good reviews despite very poor plotting and writing in general. These films are labeled cerebral, not in the sense that they make you think, but that they utilize only their heads, and are over-plotted and ultimately heartless. Sidney Lumet used this term in his book Making Movies, but it has been used in other sources as well. Zero Dark Thirty is at the heart of the resurgence of this trend, with films like Michael Clayton and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. All the films listed have several shared characteristics- long lengths, overly complex plots that are essentially impossible to follow, and ultimately resulting in a film that is all about the plot and has no time for character development or heart.
In almost three hours, Bigelow's film covers a ten-year period, sending Maya all over the globe, and constantly introducing characters and plot lines. But we really know nothing about Maya, which is the issue. The film leaves no time to really show her, and as a result she is a background to the complexities of the script. It's like the writers attempted to show how smart they were, and they do end up with a tight knot of a story, but Maya is just a pawn. We know she is totally devoted to her career and has little time for anything else, but in doing so, we neither know her or care about her.
Every issue in the film comes to light at the conclusion. Osama Bin Laden is killed in the covert mission, where Maya is taken offscreen for nearly thirty minutes. The scene is intense and exceptionally well-done, to the point where its failings in character vanish. It is a suspenseful, well-crafted action sequence that is the obvious strength of the film. However, the film is weakened by its conclusion, where we return to Maya at the base. It attempts to show the film's point, but ends up simply grasping out towards the air. Its hands close around nothing, yet it tries to present us with its find. We just see an empty hand.
Bin Laden's body is presented to Maya. She asks to be left alone, and over the terrorists body, she weeps. But why? For the loss of her friends who were killed by his organizations? For the loss of her life in ten years hunting a man? For the loss of Bin Laden's life? Because she finally realized all those monkeys died? We have no idea, and we were given no clues. Most people will say that she cries for the years wasted, but we have no indication she feels that way. We see so little of her true self, as she is always consumed by the twists and turns of the plot, to the point where she is suffocated.
But the worst is not the fact we do not know why she weeps, but that really, we don't care. We don't know or like Maya at all. And thus, the film ends attempting to touch us emotionally, but fails miserably. Zero Dark Thirty's biggest flaw is that its maze of a plot swallows any characters that are being grown.
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