A hit and lots of misses for Mossad and Helen Mirren

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:53 PM on 29th September 2011

The Debt

Verdict: Intelligent but dull

Rating:

This is an English-language remake of an Israeli hit, Hahov.

It’s about three ex-Mossad agents (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds) looking back on a job they did in the Sixties, hunting down a notorious Nazi (Jesper Christensen, convincingly nasty and unrepentant).

They are played in flashback by actors who look nothing like them and aren’t nearly as classy — that’s Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas.

Meaty role: Helen Mirren in The Debt is not at her best in the final sequence

John Madden showed what an expert director he could be with Shakespeare In Love, but his work here lacks pace and intensity.

He does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of East Germany in the Sixties, and makes the most of the all too rare suspenseful sequences.

However, the script (by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan) fails to generate much excitement, and the romantic problems of the three younger leads are far from gripping.

The political stakes are never high enough, and the only twist can be seen coming from a mile off, and serves to distance the audience still further from its leading characters.

The other big problem is that the older actors have far too little to do. Only Mirren (left) has a meaty enough role, and she is not at her best in the final sequence, where she returns to Germany for an action finale.

There’s nothing to hate about this film, but it is just not interesting enough to warrant its 104-minute running time.





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