Zero Dark Thirty (2012, dir. Kathryn Bigelow) ****/****

Like the Kennedy Assassination forty years previously, few people forget where they were when they first heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  More than 3000 innocent people lost their lives that day and it is permanently etched into the collective psyche of an entire generation.  The search for justice in the face of this incident is the premise of Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.   Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a CIA operative who is given the responsibility of tracking down Osama Bin Laden.  There isn't one extraneous scene in the film and at two and a half hours it flies by.  After winning the best picture Oscar for The Hurt Locker four years ago, Bigelow is on a role and her direction is masterful and compelling.  Chastain's performance is incredible.  The final scenes in which the Navy SEALS team finally finds Bin Laden is breathtaking and heart-pounding.  2012 was a year of many great films and Zero Dark Thirty is one of them.