Kathryn Bigelow is one of the premiere action directors working today, but while her 2008, Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker is a lesson in tension, it’s not about the action. As her lead character, a bomb diffuser, inches towards life or death with every wire snipped, we the audience are clenching our seats and breaking a sweat. A thriller of the muted kind.
Bigelow’s has a similar aesthetic thanks to its Middle East location while being a whole other beast. Following the mission to hunt and kill Osama bin Laden — which only occurred in May of 2011 — Zero Dark Thirty collects an all-star cast of Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez, Chris Pratt, James Gandolfini, and Mark Duplass (just to name a few), and drops them in the middle of the momentous and seemingly impossible covert mission. Based on the first trailer, which you can check out below, Bigelow is playing in much more familiar action territory, with the true story elements adding an extra layer of awe and terror. Even a truncated glimpse looks exhilarating.Zero Dark Thirty arrives in theaters December 19.
[Photo Credit: Sony Pictures]
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
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