Zero Dark Thirty is a thriller based on the ten year search for Bin Laden. The film is one-dimension, uninteresting, and entirely too long. The film starts and ends with engaging sequences but between spends about two hours marred in procedural u-turns. No characters are developed. We get no sense of what the characters are thinking or feeling and they never change. Jessica Chastain does little as the lead going from naive-determined to grave-determined and in the last frame we sorrowful-determined. Lots of ideas are raised but never developed. We see torture at the beginning of the film but never know how any of the characters actually feel about it. What we see indicates the characters don't mind torturing at all. The question of was it worth it? What effect did Bin Laden still have ten years after 9/11? was raised but never actually addressed unless you count Chastain tearing up in the final frame which I don't.
The supporting cast is stacked with great actors but they are given nothing to do and little screen time. Why have famous actors unless you're going to use them?
Timing for me is another problem with the film. It's entirely too soon for this movie, it seems like yesterday someone was running up to me shouting "we got him!" There has been no time for reflection and there is no reflection in the film.
I don't know why this movie has garnered so much hype, I don't know why it's garnered so much controversy. There is nothing new presented in the material that we haven't been hearing in the news for years. All the characters are so thin you don't feel anything for them and it seems as if they don't feel anything for each other. There's a scene were Chastain mourns the loss of a colleague which feels contrived because they never actually had a relationship.
Don't See It.
Rust And Bone is a French/Belgian romantic drama. The film opens on Ali(Schoenaerts) and his son Sam coming into a town to start over. As a bouncer at a night club Ali meets Stephanie(Cotillard) a killer whale trainer at Marineland. Shortly after their meeting Stephanie suffers a crippling accident and their friendship starts to develop. The film is shot and scored poetically. We see the flaws in Stephanie and Ali and why they are attracted to each other. Ali brings Stephanie out of her shell after her accident and Stephanie grounds Ali and gives him some direction. Their chemistry is great, they are intimate and at ease with each other whenever they share the screen.
The final part of the movie loses you with alternately horrific/laughable manufactured plot devices. Even so it is a unique tactile engrossing film that almost reaches it's potential.
Rent It.
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