Krishna
A docu-drama, this links the fictional aspects of drama with the reality base of a documentary. This outlines the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and depicts the tracking down and killing of Bin Laden.
The central character of the story is Maya, who is a new recruit in the CIA and is thrust into the forefront of the battle for finding Bin Laden.
I have mixed feelings about this movie. There are parts that are interesting, where they show the waterboarding of the prisoners, the angst of the CIA officer Dan (played by Jason Clarke) after many years of trying to elicit information from terrorists by any means possible, frustrated both with what he needs to do every time with every prisoner as well as, paradoxically, with the changing rules of the game with the political change in US, the decision of Dan to show his face (originally everyone wore baklavas when in front of the prisoners fearing reprisals against self or family) and many others.
The deal that they make with the terrorist chief that literally blows up in the faces of CIA officers is very intense.
The intelligence blind alleys in terms of finding the driver and messenger who may be a link to Bin Laden is very nice and novel.
The hunt and the organization of the chief himself, the gamble that Maya takes in convincing everyone where Bin Laden is, with no conclusive evidence and the success of the scheme is also interesting, though the hunt and the kill are told in a very confusing fashion.
The role of Maya by Jessica Chastain is remarkable by the standards of the complete contrast shown by the same actress in Mama (Reviewed in this forum earlier) but I did not see it at a level that is being raved about by the media and the critics. Yes, it is good, but in this role, I thought she did not reach the emotional versatility shown by Meryl Streep, for example, in many of her roles. And there was definitely a good opportunity to show these.
The documentary itself slows down in the middle with the endless search for the messenger, the repeated shows of prisoner torture and the supposedly touching attachment of Dan for “his” monkeys, when he thinks nothing of inflicting pain on his interviewees.
It is worth a look but I was not blown away. Let us say a 6/10
— Krishna