Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is, in most respects, a story (but not necessarily the story) of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Director Kathryn Bigelow establishes a general tone of historical reportage early on, and much of the film plays out as a CIA/military procedural. The details of a decade-long search come to us in pell-mell bits and pieces. An agent named Maya (Jessica Chastain) plays the key behind-the-scenes role in all this, and it’s chiefly through her that the search story takes on some dramatic coherence and immediacy. Even with the story’s outcome known in advance, Zero Dark Thirty is a riveting and unusually suspenseful tale through all of its 157-minute running time. Cinemark 14. Rated R.