Zero Dark Thirty tackles an unsettling obsession with Osama Bin Laden

KATHRYN Bigelow's disturbing Zero Dark Thirty centres on an odyssey of revenge, conducted mainly by a woman obsessed with her mission.

Zero Dark Thirty

KATHRYN Bigelow's powerfully disturbing Zero Dark Thirty is structured around a decade-long odyssey of revenge and retribution, conducted mainly by a woman obsessed with her mission.

As it unfolded I was reminded of a classic Hollywood film on a similar subject, John Ford's The Searchers, a title that Bigelow's film could easily have adopted (the actual title refers to the time of night that Osama bin Laden was shot dead in his secret headquarters in Pakistan).

Although on the surface there are few similarities between the two films (Ford's western has John Wayne obsessively tracking down the Indians who raided his brother's home and kidnapped his nieces), both explore the loneliness of the searchers, and both end on scenes of isolation and emptiness after the search has been successfully concluded.

An opening title assures us that Zero Dark Thirty is "based on firsthand accounts of actual events", and Mark Boal's screenplay was written after a great deal of research into the work of the CIA in tracking down bin Laden. From this research Boal, a former newspaperman who also scripted Bigelow's Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, decided to focus on the character of Maya (not her real name). Superbly portrayed by Jessica Chastain, Maya is first seen as a young recruit to the agency nervously coming to terms with the use of torture (water boarding and other methods) at a secret CIA base.

Prior to this, the film has reminded the viewer of the events of 9/11 by the simple device of a black screen and the actual voices of victims as they telephoned their loved ones - a shatteringly effective couple of minutes designed to prepare the audience for the next scene, which takes place two years later, in which Maya's boss, Dan (Australian Jason Clarke), is interrogating a suspected al-Qa'ida moneyman (Reda Kateb). Dan is a believer in extreme forms of interrogation ("In the end everybody breaks - it's biology") but the film has come under criticism not only for depicting torture but for suggesting that interrogations like this one provided information that eventually led to bin Laden's capture.

The investigation unfolds at a deliberate pace (the film runs more than 2 1/2 hours) and is interspersed with reminders of the ongoing terrorism threat, including the London bombings of 2005 and the destruction of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad where, according to the film, Maya and CIA colleague Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) were having dinner at the time. Perhaps because the film is directed by a woman, women feature very strongly among the most resourceful of the CIA operatives depicted. Maya appears to be totally dedicated to the agency; this attractive young woman never mentions her family or her lovers, and her only friends appear to be her colleagues. After a while Dan becomes sick of the work and is transferred back to the US, but Maya remains steadfast in her determination to track down UBL (as bin Laden at times is confusingly referred to), impatient to the point of insubordination with her superiors who get in her way.

The film is not a gung ho action picture; it doesn't entertain in the way that Argo, another recent film about a CIA success, did. The climactic raid on bin Laden's headquarters is seen through night goggles as a nasty, brutal event (Joel Edgerton appears as one of the navy SEALS involved). Bigelow favours hand-held camerawork but, perhaps because her cinematographer, Australian Greig Fraser, is an accomplished professional, the style is never as unappealing as it is in the hands of lesser talents.

Zero Dark Thirty raises as many questions as it answers and the controversy over aspects of the film doubtless will rage for many months; but in essence this multi-Oscar-nominated film is a powerfully unsettling experience.

Zero Dark Thirty (M)
4 stars
National release from January 31