I knew almost nothing about this film other than it had some good buzz and Helen Mirren was in it. No idea of the plot, setting, etc., which is rare, so I went in about as blindly as one can.
The Debt, in case you are as ill-informed as I, is about a trio of Israeli agents in the mid-60s who infiltrate East Berlin to track down a former Nazi concentration camp doctor and bring him to justice. The team consists of Stephen (the great Marton Csokas), David (Sam Worthington), and Rachel (Jessica Chastain), and they have their own inner tensions – there's a semi-love triangle, David is overly secretive, and so on. Interspersed with this plot are scenes where the three of them are older (and except for Rachel, look totally different), looking back on the incident, as Rachel's daughter has written a book about it (older Rachel is, of course, Mirren).
Sometimes this kind of crosscutting works in a film, but here it is somewhat confusing because older David (Ciaran Hinds) and older Stephen (Tom Wilkinson) look nothing like their younger counterparts, so you have to sort of play 'who's who' for a while until it sorts itself out. Also, they seem to show you the climax of the 60s plot in the beginning, so some of the tension seems to be missing from that thread until the big twist in the middle of the film, which catapults the action into the modern day. This is where the movie really grinds to a crawl; the older counterparts are so different from their younger versions that it's almost like starting a second movie an hour and ten minutes in. I had a hard time caring about the older characters, and they dominate completely the last third of the film.
Mirren of course is good, and Hinds plays older David with a wonderfully haunted mien (he's not in the movie enough to make any deeper impression). All three of the young leads are excellent –Worthington can sometimes come off as flat, but here he underplays David, and he's excellent (his final scene with Rachel is subtle and exceptional). Chastain, whom I'm not familiar with, is stellar here; we bond with Rachel instantly, and she's an intriguing character. Obviously I like Csokas and he's in his comfort zone here, playing a confident, intelligent prick, but he's magnetic.
It's probably because the young leads are so good that the older ones come off so dull and unappealing (even Mirren), and frankly the storyline in the present day (well, the late 90s, their present day) seems trite and silly next to the danger of East Berlin and an ex-Nazi gynecologist. That shift, which may have worked well in a novel (or perhaps in the original Israeli version of the movie), stops the film dead in its tracks, and while we're following the present, flashbacks to the past only drag down the current action more. It's a risky proposition to split a plot between younger and older versions of characters anyway, though it's been done well elsewhere; but here the schism is too jarring, too great to be overcome, and you're left wishing they would have just stayed in the Sixties when the movie was interesting.
Overall it's a mediocre film, with some parts very well done and others irritatingly flat. Had the present day plot line been anywhere near as compelling, this would have been a standout film; as it is, it's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Some parts are definitely worth a look, but the parts don't add up to a satisfying whole, and with the talent involved, I can't shake the nagging feeling they should have.
The Debt, in case you are as ill-informed as I, is about a trio of Israeli agents in the mid-60s who infiltrate East Berlin to track down a former Nazi concentration camp doctor and bring him to justice. The team consists of Stephen (the great Marton Csokas), David (Sam Worthington), and Rachel (Jessica Chastain), and they have their own inner tensions – there's a semi-love triangle, David is overly secretive, and so on. Interspersed with this plot are scenes where the three of them are older (and except for Rachel, look totally different), looking back on the incident, as Rachel's daughter has written a book about it (older Rachel is, of course, Mirren).
Sometimes this kind of crosscutting works in a film, but here it is somewhat confusing because older David (Ciaran Hinds) and older Stephen (Tom Wilkinson) look nothing like their younger counterparts, so you have to sort of play 'who's who' for a while until it sorts itself out. Also, they seem to show you the climax of the 60s plot in the beginning, so some of the tension seems to be missing from that thread until the big twist in the middle of the film, which catapults the action into the modern day. This is where the movie really grinds to a crawl; the older counterparts are so different from their younger versions that it's almost like starting a second movie an hour and ten minutes in. I had a hard time caring about the older characters, and they dominate completely the last third of the film.
Mirren of course is good, and Hinds plays older David with a wonderfully haunted mien (he's not in the movie enough to make any deeper impression). All three of the young leads are excellent –Worthington can sometimes come off as flat, but here he underplays David, and he's excellent (his final scene with Rachel is subtle and exceptional). Chastain, whom I'm not familiar with, is stellar here; we bond with Rachel instantly, and she's an intriguing character. Obviously I like Csokas and he's in his comfort zone here, playing a confident, intelligent prick, but he's magnetic.
It's probably because the young leads are so good that the older ones come off so dull and unappealing (even Mirren), and frankly the storyline in the present day (well, the late 90s, their present day) seems trite and silly next to the danger of East Berlin and an ex-Nazi gynecologist. That shift, which may have worked well in a novel (or perhaps in the original Israeli version of the movie), stops the film dead in its tracks, and while we're following the present, flashbacks to the past only drag down the current action more. It's a risky proposition to split a plot between younger and older versions of characters anyway, though it's been done well elsewhere; but here the schism is too jarring, too great to be overcome, and you're left wishing they would have just stayed in the Sixties when the movie was interesting.
Overall it's a mediocre film, with some parts very well done and others irritatingly flat. Had the present day plot line been anywhere near as compelling, this would have been a standout film; as it is, it's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Some parts are definitely worth a look, but the parts don't add up to a satisfying whole, and with the talent involved, I can't shake the nagging feeling they should have.