In Zero Dark Thirty, you’ll easily spot Jason Clarke hunting for Bin Laden alongside Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain. He’s impossible to miss.

As veteran CIA operator Dan Bradley, the Australian actor serves as a sort of mentor and later, valued contact for Chastain’s Maya Lambert. Dan is one of the first characters we meet in the film, and although he eventually takes a back seat to Maya, he never fades away. That’s because Clarke is one of the sharpest actors working today. Not only does he have the physical presence to be the guy you absolutely do not want interrogating you, but he takes Dan on an arc of his own, creating an empathy for the man as he goes. There’s an interest in what happens to him even when the story is no longer about him. It’s a head-scratcher that Clarke didn’t pick up a supporting-actor Oscar nomination himself.

His performance, however, isn’t a surprise to anyone who has had the pleasure of watching Clarke on the small screen over the last several years. His first major US role was as ambitious Rhode Island politician Tommy Caffee in Showtime’s original series Brotherhood, which ran for three seasons starting in 2006. It certainly didn’t look like it was his first time in the lead. He was fantastic at peeling back the layers of Tommy, revealing to the audience that the so-called ‘good brother’ was as flawed as everyone else. Yet even when he did things that were absolutely infuriating — and there were a few — Clarke’s performance made it so you never stopped caring about him. Tommy never lost his humanity, for better or for worse. Brotherhood was a brilliant series all the way around, and one heck of a way for an actor to make an arrival.

During and after Brotherhood, Clarke appeared in supporting film roles — including working with Michael Mann for Public Enemies and Oliver Stone in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps — but he returned to the small screen in 2011 when he nabbed the starring role in FOX’s The Chicago Code. Playing no-nonsense Chicago detective Jarek Wysocki, Clarke was dynamite. He was a revelation. All of the superlatives used to describe his character were believable because of how he played the part: always confident, with a passion for the city he was sworn to protect and the willingness to punch back on its behalf. At the same time, Clarke again showed us his character’s vulnerabilities. Jarek was undoubtedly a hero, but he was what heroes really are: flawed, not always right, and having to deal with what it takes to fight the good fight. He was as raw and real a protagonist as TV could ever ask for.

It’s no wonder why Clarke has come to the attention of big-name directors like Mann, Stone and Zero Dark Thirty‘s Kathryn Bigelow. He’s a veteran actor who has honed his talent and it shows. He is the entire package: intimidating physicality, but underneath that great talent, especially in finding the heart within any given role. Conflicted politicians, reckless cops and tough-guy government agents are all parts we’ve seen before, but never quite the way Clarke has played them. Each of his characters has been distinct, and every role he takes is somehow memorable. That includes when he’s playing second-string to a deserving Oscar nominee. With its high profile, Zero Dark Thirty should give Clarke the widespread notice that he deserves.

Clarke will next be seen in Baz Luhrmann’s new version of The Great Gatsby, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Zero Dark Thirty is in theaters now.

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The release of Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden flick has been surrounded by myriad storylines. It’s been highly politicized: Republicans criticized its planned release prior to the 2012 election (the date was moved), Democrats – and Senator John McCain — have chaffed at the way the film “glorifies” the torture, the Central Intelligence Agency is being investigated for potentially sharing classified information with the film’s producers … even today, as the Academy Award nominations were announced, Bigelow was criminally snubbed in the Best Director Category. Despite all of these stories, these attempts to claim the movie for one particular cause or the other, Zero Dark Thirty belongs to star Jessica Chastain.

Chastain plays Mya, the fictionalized CIA intelligence officer who first developed and followed the lead that eventually led to the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Her story is based on accounts of an officer who doggedly chased down a single lead over ten years. Audiences have been cautioned against taking Zero Dark Thirty’s telling of this story as gospel. Like any movie, it’s been fictionalized for the sake of good storytelling, but considering the topical nature, the way the story is told against the background of the real history of the 10 years between 9/11/01 and 5/1/11 and the way the story is going to resonate with US audiences, it’s going to be tough for many to distinguish fact from fiction. At the end of the day, however, I am likely to believe that there is considerably more fact in the broad strokes of the story, with only the smaller – yet important – details as the fiction.

But viewing Zero Dark Thirty separate of that specific historical context is much more rewarding than trying to figure out what was real and what was not. Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have crafted a story that presents a hypothetical history in an incredibly compelling fashion. Mya is a character that might seem familiar to fans of Showtime’s Homeland; there is a lot she shares in common with Carrie Mathison – I’d be intrigued to slip into Fringe’s alternate universe and watch Chastain and Claire Danes switch roles. I was especially pleased that Boal didn’t slip into cliché when creating Mya – there’s no motivating backstory about a family member lost in the 9/11 attacks. Most importantly because it is simply unnecessary; there’s no one mature enough to appreciate Zero Dark Thirty upon its release that the emotional loss of 9/11 doesn’t already resonate without a trite backstory. That’s not to say that Mya doesn’t grow in these 10 years, experience successes and suffer losses that further motivate her, but that’s an important part of her evolution.

If there’s anyone in the cast that threatens to take the spotlight from Chastain, it is Jason Clarke as seasoned operative and kinda-sorta-but-not-really mentor Dan (there are very few – if any – last names attributed to any of the characters and in many cases, important characters are identified in the credits simply by their title). Dan’s line from the second trailer, “I’m bad news,” immediately defines the character as someone who puts his country and mission above everything, including his morals. Clarke is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood; hopefully this performance will open the doors for him that his great work on television hasn’t yet.

While Chastain and Clarke are clearly the stars of the film – though Dan does fade away over time, so that Mya can take center stage – that’s not to say that the rest of the cast is filled with blank faces. In fact, geeks across the planet should rejoice in some of the casting in minor roles (some barely a cameo). Folks like Torchwood‘s and Arrow’s John Barrowman, Lost’s Harold Perrineau, Parks and Rec’s Chris Pratt, Game of Thrones’ Stephen Dillane, Human Target’s Mark Valley, Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler, The League’s Mark Duplass, Warrior’s Joel Edgerton and The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini all appear, several so quickly you are likely to miss them the first time you watch (I’ve probably left off a name or two, but at some point you just have to stop).

Undoubtedly, the controversy that surrounds this film will probably have more of a negative impact than a positive one, and that’s unfair. While Senator McCain might have a problem with the implication that torture was the source of the intelligence that led to bin Laden – and if there is any politician who has earned the right to say whatever he wants about torture whenever he wants, it is McCain – Zero Dark Thirty celebrates the plot point. In fact, there is very little celebration found anywhere in the narrative, a stark contrast to how most – including myself – reacted on the evening of May 1^st (there is some celebrating amongst the DEVGRU operatives after the completion of their mission, but it is relatively subdued, and could easily be attributed to the type of reaction any special operation group has when the whole team returns to base safely).

Instead of letting itself be claimed by real-world politics on its release, or allowing itself to delve into the morality and effectiveness of torture or any of the other greater questions the story touches on, it simply presents this fictionalized narrative as is. There is no tag at the end of the film, reminding of us of the lives lost on 9/11, in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, or those lost by our intelligence agencies in the mission of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. There is simply an image of Jessica Chastain’s Mya, representing all of those things as well as the nameless, faceless members of our government and military who labored 10 years on that mission as the shock of the event wears off, and the completed mission leaves an incredible void. That moment is as powerful as anything else the film presents, giving one last opportunity for Chastain to shine.

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**All passes for this screening have been claimed.**

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, Zero Dark Thirty, won’t be opening wide until January 11, 2013, but the film has been playing in a few major cities and has garnered several Golden Globe nominations already, including Best Picture — Drama, Best Actress in a Drama — Jessica Chastain, and Best Director — Kathryn Bigelow. You’ll probably be seeing these names again come Oscar time. If you’re unfamiliar with the film, it tells the story of the raid on the Bin Laden compound that resulted in the terrorist mastermind’s death.

If you can’t wait until January 11 to see the film, CliqueClack has partnered with Columbia Pictures and Allied Integrated Marketing to offer our readers in Maryland and the surrounding area free passes to the special advance screening to be held on January 9, 2013 at the Cinemark Egyptian theaters at Arundel Mills. Showtime is 7:00 PM. To get your two free Admit One passes, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and we’ll email you a special code to redeem at GoFoBo.com. Passes are limited and could run out at any time, so leave your comments now!

Zero Dark Thirty is currently playing in select cities; opening wide on January 11, 2013.

**All passes for this screening have been claimed.**