93% Zero Dark Thirty

All Critics (85) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (6)

What it does in the course of telling a seminal story of our time is what contemporary films so rarely do, serve as brilliant provocation.

The genius of "Zero Dark Thirty" is that we feel exactly what those involved must have felt at the end. Not elation. Not the thrill of victory. Just relief.

A powerful, morally complicated work on an urgent subject. It is a film that deserves-that almost demands-to be seen and argued over.

Movies must move, and this one just lies there like a stack of paper from a classified government filing cabinet.

[Chastain's performance has] a lot of colors, and angles, and is guaranteed to be remembered come awards time. Maya's a real character, all right.

Kathryn Bigelow proves herself once again to be a master of heightened realism and narrative drive in this retelling of the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden.

It's like "All the President's Men" with torture and explosions, but no mention of presidents...

The decision one has to make is whether it's worth sitting through the first two hours, that provide a fine antidote for insomnia, to see the final 37 minutes.

A masterful piece of action filmmaking that succeeds in generating enormous tension by dramatizing a recent historical event in spite of the fact that everyone knows how it will end.

What makes the movie so effective is its protagonist, a doggedly determined CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain, who never loses sight of her goal in spite of repeated setbacks and bouts of political in-fighting.

The problem at the center of Zero Dark Thirty is that knowing and not knowing constitute a process, a process in which people tell lies and get hurt, in which costs can be overwhelming.

With a protagonist you lack the desire to root for and subject matter that's been shoved down our throats in the 11 years since 9/11, This is one of the only films this year where battling heavy eyelids is more exciting than the film itself.

The result is a remarkably thorough, unexpectedly cinematic, two-and-half-hour chronicle of American persistence.

There is something definitive about Zero Dark Thirty as a piece of filmmaking, as though Bigelow is concluding the entire ordeal for us on the big screen, as a film that could well earn her yet another Oscar.

While the film may not be the best of the year, its true winner is Jessica Chastain's knock-out, Oscar-worthy performance.

Zero Dark Thirty is a skillful -- and somewhat cautious -- look at military bureaucracy. It's both hampered and elevated by its dependence on authenticity.

Don't mess with the chicks. Osama bin Laden did, and look what happened to him.

Kathryn Bigelow's painstaking account of the events that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden favors dramatization over character and suspense.

There's no more perfect title for a film this year, because it manages to suggest a witching hour, a veil of deadly secrecy, and a pinpoint-honed logistical operation all at once.

A feverishly thrilling, decade-spanning CIA procedural.

This is next-level filmmaking -- smart, brave and intense.

Zero Dark Thirty has nary a wasted scene and very little in the way of respite from the intensity and power of its story and execution.

Achieves something rare, presenting a hot-button subject-torture-without the usual moral nudging.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_dark_thirty/

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