Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. on the 11th September 2001. She is a reluctant participant in extreme duress applied to the detainees, but believes that the truth may only be obtained through such tactics. For several years, she is single-minded in her pursuit of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. Finally, in 2011, it appears that her work will pay off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is confident Bin Laden is where she says he is..............
There's been mixed reviews for this movie and I must admit I wasn't keen but a chance opened up to see it as a double bill with another movie I thought would be better, apart from the length of the movie this is quite entertaining and tense as you know the result of the hunt, Maya (Jessica Chastain, I only knew her from Lawless and I liked her performance in this movie even if it's a little over the top!).
The movie jumps throughout in great leaps according to breakthroughs and events that shape the story (there's even the attacks in London featured), torture is very evident at the start, bribery, betrayal, guessing, assumptions and a new administrations but Maya is the link and her transformation from inexperienced officer to vengeful and experienced officer is one to behold, there's not a lot of action until the raid on the compound at the end (very well done) and between the indecision and meetings to guess what were the percentages that he was at this compound (60%), it surprises me the mission ever got the go ahead.
All in all I believe it's worth a watch, it's better than The Hurt Locker in my opinion from this director, does it deserve an oscar?, depends on how factual or truthful this movie was, there's several cameos during the movie (James Gandolfini, Mark Strong, John Barrowman.......) but it's the ending and the mistake that led to the compound, SEAL Team 6 are referred to as Canaries because Maya had a whole different plan to deal with the compound (involved a really large bomb!)
Maya's passion rather than performance is the key to this movie if that makes sense?
As far as anything about it being factual, I find it unlikely. I'm glad you enjoyed the film though.
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She's a busty one!
DeleteYou should see the Pirate Babes I'm painting right now. Frankly my blog is dying and I have to do something to resuscitate it. Do you think a dio of Pirate Babes mud wrestling some Busty Cowgirls might bring it back to life?
DeleteBetter than the Hurt Locker? Well, you've got my attention. I just have to get past the "this proves torture works" part that is swirling around and see it for what it is-entertainment. Thanks Fran!
ReplyDeleteThis is one I will catch for sure on DVD!
ReplyDeleteDoes look a good film.
ReplyDeleteGood review Fran.
ReplyDeletei am going to wait for this, though you have a great set of words... to sell it!
ReplyDelete"I believe it's worth a watch"
ReplyDeleteSounds like I'm going somewhere this Saturday night then! :P
I don't know why, but I have absolutely no desire to see this film. I felt the same about the Hurt Locker, eventually watched it and found it somewhat average. Maybe it's all the hype that kills it for me?
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, thanks as always for the review!
It sounds like it deserves mixed reviews based on the premise. I think how well it handles it will determine how likely I am to watch it. I'd hope that it also tries to spread a bit of a message about torture, and how it's a terrible thing.
ReplyDeleteBetter than The Hurt Locker - those are words I needed to hear, as I didn't care for that movie. I still won't go into this one with huge expectations. Then I will appreciate it more.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very good movie, in my opinion; Doesn´t have a lot of action but show us the difficult task of gathering INTEL and working with it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review!
Yeah it wasn't a bad watch, but I highly doubt anything is very factual.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it, personally I won't watch it on principal as it smacks of crass american propaganda and "hell yea we are great" bull shit.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to put a figure on this films authenticity I would probably give it something like 1% (for the equipment).Any "facts" which the film makers have obtained from the US government or anyone involved will be highly slanted in favour of making the US look good, and everyone else pants.
The Hurt Locker is however an excellent film.
Yeah, makes sense. I'm just gonna wait for it to come out to watch it. In like maybe a year or two.
ReplyDelete4 stars? i found this movie to be so boring. Didn't last threw 20 mins of it.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen this, but I'm looking forward to checking it out.
ReplyDeleteI have little interest in seeing this, just not into this type of film. I would say though that factually it's as factual as Homelands, but I doubt as entertaining (though third serries will be two too many)
ReplyDeleteIan
4 starts eh, definitely worth a watch then.
ReplyDeleteI might try it out. I seen Hurt Locker, which irritated me; also I've seen Acts of Valor, which while okay, the book was better. It's hard to watch "modern" war films, as it doesn't match the long tedium with brief moments of "Holy $h!+". Cinema tends to use goofy SOPs for doing room clearance, stand-off distances, and splashy weapon effects.
ReplyDeleteThen again, It's irritating to have missions where friends get hurt/ bad guys get away.
I'm more a fan of Band of Brothers and We were Soldiers. Although splashy and older in conflict setting, the comaraderie, battle stress, and espirit de corps is comfortingly present....and I'm not filled with an urge to smack an idiot like Hurt Locker did.
Band of Brothers does rank as one of my favourites of all time.
DeleteThanks for the review, Francis: very informative. Although it's not something I'm in a mad rush to see - for several reasons - I form the impression that this was, by way of a change, a rather sober and real (for a given value of 'real') treatment of the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteI am concerned, though, that the thing might tend to legitimate the 'intel gathering' techniques used by the US military. It is possible that by the US forced some poor schmuck to betray his own, but as that process took more than 10 years, one might legitimately ask the question whether other methods, less inhumane, might have yielded quicker results.
I have no quarrel with the movie's depiction as such - after all, one of its themes might have been to ask questions about the moral ambiguity (shall we say) of torture as a means to an end. For mine, it comes down to 'no', for moral and practical reasons both. But had it left the question unanswered: well, the viewer decides.
You see, the question comes down to something naively simple: what makes the good guys different from the bad guys? And, frankly, I reckon we're looking too much like 'bad guys' to fool anyone for long...
I loved it. Well not really loved, because it's a long, dark, grueling and mentally exhausting film but it's incredibly well made, has some amazing performances (Chastain!)...I would have voted this best picture over Argo but oh wells.
ReplyDelete