'THE DEBT': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
American remake of a 2007 Israeli film, of the same name, about three secret agents sent in to East Berlin in 1966 to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal. The film jumps back and forth between 1966 and 1997 as we see the three agents recalling the events of their mission forty years earlier. It stars Sam Worthington (otherwise known as 'Mr. Blockbuster', of 'AVATAR', 'TERMINATOR SALVATION' and 'CLASH OF THE TITANS' fame), Jessica Chastain (the Bryce Dallas Howard look-alike whose been getting a lot more work than Howard lately) and Marton Csokas as the three agents in their younger years and Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds in their later years. The film was directed by John Madden (of 'SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE' fame) and written by Matthew Vaughn (who also produced the film), Jane Goldman (a usual writing partner of Vaughn's) and Peter Straughan. The film is an effective spy thriller, nothing spectacular (and I expected a little more considering the talent involved) but a decent flick even so.
The story revolves around Mossad agent Rachel Singer (played by Chastain and Mirren) and focuses around her 1966 Berlin assignment when she was teamed with agents David Peretz (Worthington and Hinds) and Stefan Gold (Csokas and Wilkinson). They were given the assignment of capturing Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), also known as 'The Surgeon of Birkenau' (for the atrocious medical experiments he conducted during the war) and bringing him to justice to face his crimes. Rachel and David take cover as a married couple from Argentina and Rachel also poses as a patient of Vogel's at the clinic where he works. During their assignment a love triangle develops between the three with an unplanned pregnancy also developing between two of them. This causes complications which are further aggravated when the mission becomes compromised later on. At one point they're forced to return home and stretch the truth to their superiors and the rest of the world. A lie that later comes back to haunt them.
The film is an interesting and involving character study but only to a certain extent. Chastain is great in the lead and so is Mirren (like always). It's nice to see Worthington stretching a bit as an actor and doing something other than a big budget, big visual action spectacle but his character is probably the least developed in the film. What he does do with the little material he does have is impressive though and he manages to draw a lot of compassion (from the viewer) to his heart felt performance (I just would have liked to have seen more of it). Christensen is memorable as the movie's monstrous villain but Wilkinson overacts a little. The rest of the cast is underused for the most part and the film feels a bit rushed in plot development (despite a somewhat slow pace and small amount of action and thrills). The love triangle is believable though, especially Chastain and Worthington's part of it (and the duo presents a decent amount of chemistry while pulling it off). Madden's directing is fitting and the script is well written but like I said the film feels a little too condensed. As a whole it's entertaining and interesting while you're watching it but nothing most viewers will probably remember to well years from now.
Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFgJwfpDzmc
American remake of a 2007 Israeli film, of the same name, about three secret agents sent in to East Berlin in 1966 to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal. The film jumps back and forth between 1966 and 1997 as we see the three agents recalling the events of their mission forty years earlier. It stars Sam Worthington (otherwise known as 'Mr. Blockbuster', of 'AVATAR', 'TERMINATOR SALVATION' and 'CLASH OF THE TITANS' fame), Jessica Chastain (the Bryce Dallas Howard look-alike whose been getting a lot more work than Howard lately) and Marton Csokas as the three agents in their younger years and Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds in their later years. The film was directed by John Madden (of 'SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE' fame) and written by Matthew Vaughn (who also produced the film), Jane Goldman (a usual writing partner of Vaughn's) and Peter Straughan. The film is an effective spy thriller, nothing spectacular (and I expected a little more considering the talent involved) but a decent flick even so.
The story revolves around Mossad agent Rachel Singer (played by Chastain and Mirren) and focuses around her 1966 Berlin assignment when she was teamed with agents David Peretz (Worthington and Hinds) and Stefan Gold (Csokas and Wilkinson). They were given the assignment of capturing Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), also known as 'The Surgeon of Birkenau' (for the atrocious medical experiments he conducted during the war) and bringing him to justice to face his crimes. Rachel and David take cover as a married couple from Argentina and Rachel also poses as a patient of Vogel's at the clinic where he works. During their assignment a love triangle develops between the three with an unplanned pregnancy also developing between two of them. This causes complications which are further aggravated when the mission becomes compromised later on. At one point they're forced to return home and stretch the truth to their superiors and the rest of the world. A lie that later comes back to haunt them.
The film is an interesting and involving character study but only to a certain extent. Chastain is great in the lead and so is Mirren (like always). It's nice to see Worthington stretching a bit as an actor and doing something other than a big budget, big visual action spectacle but his character is probably the least developed in the film. What he does do with the little material he does have is impressive though and he manages to draw a lot of compassion (from the viewer) to his heart felt performance (I just would have liked to have seen more of it). Christensen is memorable as the movie's monstrous villain but Wilkinson overacts a little. The rest of the cast is underused for the most part and the film feels a bit rushed in plot development (despite a somewhat slow pace and small amount of action and thrills). The love triangle is believable though, especially Chastain and Worthington's part of it (and the duo presents a decent amount of chemistry while pulling it off). Madden's directing is fitting and the script is well written but like I said the film feels a little too condensed. As a whole it's entertaining and interesting while you're watching it but nothing most viewers will probably remember to well years from now.
Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFgJwfpDzmc