Melbourne Weekly
07 Nov, 2011 01:33 PM
THE DEBT (M)When: Opens Thursday, November 10
Where: General release
HOLLYWOOD increasingly cannibalises foreign films in its search for an original voice, and this is the case with The Debt. Based on the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Nov and directed by John Madden of Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown fame, it’s a somewhat far-fetched tale of Mossad secret agents sent to forcibly extract Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) from East Berlin during the Cold War.
Split between two time periods, in 1955 the three Mossad agents – Rachel, Stephan and David – are played by relative newcomer Jessica Chastain (in one of the film’s few stand-out performances), Marton Csokas and Australia’s own Sam Worthington, while their older selves in 1997 are portrayed by Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds.
Without revealing too much, the botched extraction results in all three agents being forced to cover up a dark secret that eats away at them for more than 30 years, creating a moral dilemma: once told, should a lie be upheld for the greater good, or should truth will out?
With a better script from Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, this could have been a masterful thriller posing complex philosophical questions. As it is, we’re treated to a rather glib and shallow story that stretches credibility while never fully raising the stakes that such a richly textured historical setting allows. A menage a trois between the agents pops out of nowhere and feels forced without the proper room to grow. Jesper Christensen’s Dieter Vogel is a caricature-style villain without any of the subtly delivered monstrosity that was so powerful in the German-made Downfall.
The film’s one genuinely exciting sequence, as the agents attempt to kidnap Vogel from his suburban cover and bust him out of Berlin by train, is exhilarating enough to highlight how monotonously paced the rest of the film is, while a knife attack at the climax descends into hysteria. Mirren and Hinds fail to shine. A better script and tighter direction could have saved this, but as is, it’s never more than competent.
Where: General release
HOLLYWOOD increasingly cannibalises foreign films in its search for an original voice, and this is the case with The Debt. Based on the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Nov and directed by John Madden of Shakespeare in Love and Mrs Brown fame, it’s a somewhat far-fetched tale of Mossad secret agents sent to forcibly extract Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) from East Berlin during the Cold War.
Split between two time periods, in 1955 the three Mossad agents – Rachel, Stephan and David – are played by relative newcomer Jessica Chastain (in one of the film’s few stand-out performances), Marton Csokas and Australia’s own Sam Worthington, while their older selves in 1997 are portrayed by Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds.
Without revealing too much, the botched extraction results in all three agents being forced to cover up a dark secret that eats away at them for more than 30 years, creating a moral dilemma: once told, should a lie be upheld for the greater good, or should truth will out?
With a better script from Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, this could have been a masterful thriller posing complex philosophical questions. As it is, we’re treated to a rather glib and shallow story that stretches credibility while never fully raising the stakes that such a richly textured historical setting allows. A menage a trois between the agents pops out of nowhere and feels forced without the proper room to grow. Jesper Christensen’s Dieter Vogel is a caricature-style villain without any of the subtly delivered monstrosity that was so powerful in the German-made Downfall.
The film’s one genuinely exciting sequence, as the agents attempt to kidnap Vogel from his suburban cover and bust him out of Berlin by train, is exhilarating enough to highlight how monotonously paced the rest of the film is, while a knife attack at the climax descends into hysteria. Mirren and Hinds fail to shine. A better script and tighter direction could have saved this, but as is, it’s never more than competent.
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