Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Where'd You Wanna Go?

★★★★☆

Jessica Chastain’s Maya, the only one in the world 100% sure that Bin Laden’s in a compound in Pakistan rather than in some caves in Afghanistan, is picked up like a VIP and asked, after pulling off her hunt for OBL, ‘where’d you want to go?’ She however, looks poignant, helpless and lost all of a sudden, with tears streaming down her face. She chokes, and can hardly answer the question. Are those tears of joy? The joy of finally being able to gain justice and avenge the innocent? I don’t think so!

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is Kathryn Bigelow’s latest since her 2008’s Oscar-winning ‘The Hurt Locker’. Compared with THL, actions in ZDT are few but very intense. The last 30 minutes of the film really is a masterpiece of example of how a real exciting action sequence’s supposed to be like. It manages to take my breath even though I already know (everybody does) that the S.E.A.L. team’s going to make it for sure. The whole plot basically centers on Maya’s madness and perseverance to want to find OBL and bury him. Such a character is supposed to be very tough to have done such a tedious and dangerous work, but I don’t feel anything like that every time I get to look into her eyes. She seems like a lost, frail soul to me. With no friends indeed, and no dates, she’s been dedicating almost her whole life to hunting OBL. She’s done nothing but that ever since she joined the CIA. So I don’t see how tough she is. I can only imagine how distasteful she feels about her own life, as y’know she introduces herself as a motherf**ker!

This film reminds me of one of the quotes I posted on my Facebook days ago, ‘hate has created so many problems but hasn’t solved one yet’. We’ve been deceived by a wrong idea that once we get revenge, we’ll let it go. Truth is, we never will, and never can. Letting go is something to be done not after revenge but before. Hate is a poison. Revenge is no sweet. If you mess up, you’ll be, in the end, asking yourself hard questions like, ‘where’d I want to go now?’, ‘what should I do next?’ And like Maya, you’ll be sure silenced by your own remorse and conscience!