Particularly by Chastain, who has had an incredible star-making year in 2011 with roles in this and The Tree of Life, not to mention well-received roles in The Help and Take Shelter, with Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome, Ami Canaan Mann’s (daughter of Michael) Texas Killing Fields, and John Hillcoat’s The Wettest County in the World still to come. They track down and identify Vogel, now working as a gynecologist, with Rachel impersonating a patient the horror of a Nazi war criminal working in this capacity is played to full effect, culminating in a scene where Rachel finally apprehends him during the course of an examination.ĭespite the presence of Mirren, Wilkinson, and Hinds in the more contemporary scenes, where The Debt really shines is in the flashback sequences the mission is intricately detailed and exciting, the characters are well-written and acted. We find out as The Debt segues for a lengthy flashback in 1966 East Berlin, with Jessica Chastain as Rachel, Marton Csokas as Stephen, and Sam Worthington as David. Gold has good sources: her mother, Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) was one of those agents father Stephen Gold (Tom Wilkinson), was another, and still works for the government.īut early scenes suggest something is afoot when Stephen solemnly visits with his ex-wife and the third agent involved, David Peretz (Ciarán Hinds). When, late in their odyssey, Anna asks, “What’s the plan? I’m bored,” it seems a question she might have joined the audience in asking much earlier.For a good 80 minutes, John Madden’s The Debt is a taut and suspenseful thriller surrounding an exciting subject: a Cold War-era plot by agents of Mossad to capture a particularly nasty Nazi war criminal so he can stand trial for his atrocities.īut while the film works – and works well – for its first two-thirds, it falls apart for the climax, which is absurd, unnecessary, and thriller-movie cliché.īased on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, The Debt opens in 1997 Tel Aviv, where young writer Sarah Gold (Romi Aboulafia) has just come out with a new book detailing the mission to apprehend Dieter Vogel (the fictional “Surgeon of Birkenau”, obviously modeled after Josef Mengele) by three brave Mossad agents. That the police don’t catch up with him much sooner is a major contrivance. The anarchic Micha is anti-social in a way that may appeal to some young viewers, but his actions and abrupt mood changes mostly come off as random and reckless, with no real purpose other than general contrariness. But if you can get past all that, there is a measure of dark humor to be found in some of the situations-the trio’s interruption of an older women’s female empowerment group meeting is a highlight-and in the unusual, deliberately jarring, likely Godard-influenced rhythms of the cutting and use of music by Israeli indie artist Uzi Ramirez, which range from discordant hard rock and folksy whimsy to a lilting banjo version of Beautiful Dreamer. PHOTOS: Fall Movie Preview 2012: Major New Releases From Spielberg, Jackson, Tarantino, the Wachowskis, Burton and MoreĪnyone partial to applying even limited standards of realism and credibility to a narrative will be put off by the way the impulsive Micha (Geffen) packs the bewilderingly unresistant Anna (Ya’ara Pelzig, of last year’s outstanding Policeman) into his car, puts down his terminally mom (whose last words–“Yell at her less! Let yourself be loved!”–express motherly concern), orders Anna to pick up pizza stand babe Nony (Romi Aboulafia) for him and then drives around unapprehended while, on pit stops, getting both women to sleep with him.īoth passive and aggressive in the extreme, Micha is not very good company, while the women are aggravating to the degree that they indulge Micha’s manipulations and fail to act in their own best interests. Events of the Week: 'Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me,' 'My Policeman' and More
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |