Two Helen Mirren movies in under a week should be considered wildly fortunate for admirers of taut, no-nonsense acting of the first order. The problem arises when the subsequent film, The Debt, merely gives pause to fond remembrances of last week’s superior Mirren performance in Brighton Rock.
On paper, The Debt should blow Brighton’s doors off. Mossad agents, then and now, 30 years apart, yet in the same struggle to not only hunt a despicable Nazi but deal with highly ethical questions of truth and guilt in combating one of history’s greatest challenges. Suspense tropes, albeit too slickly, roam the territory between a mean and nasty abduction of a war criminal now working gynecology in 1960s East Berlin, and a late-1990s revelation that the past is far from perfect.
Weaving Jessica Chastain (Brad Pitt’s ostensibly mute wife in Tree Of Life) as his reluctant hero of the 60s portion of this flick, with her 30 years hence portrayer, Mirren, we’re left with more than a little vertigo. Sure, it’s exhilarating to watch Chastain and two male pals abduct and hold prisoner a horrendous villain, but my head hurt trying to go along with that other superior actor, Tom Wilkinson, showing up as a later day version of Chastain’s Mossad ringleader, or Ciaran Hinds as a similar 1990s version of Chastain’s one-that-got-away, Sam Worthington. It’s like being jolted back and forth between two different movies each trying too hard by half to identify itself with the other.
Director John Madden can boast Shakespeare in Love among his credits. Here it’s more like Mirren/Wilkenson/Hinds In Hock… Some suspenseful moments, to be sure, and Chastain again proves she’s a screen presence to keep an eye on, but in the end The Debt, introduces a great question: Is it OK to lie to the public if the greater good prevails as a result? It answers it only superficially, since genre requirements and spy movie schematics restrict a more natural resulting flow. Based on an Israeli film that hardly anybody saw (Ha-Hov, 2007) I’ve got a feeling the original should be sought out. Here, we’ve got superior performances by Jesper Christensen as The Nazi and Marton Csokas as the young Wilkinson, a perfunctory satisfying Mirren, and a slightly above average suspense movie that also throws in a primarily distracting love triangle. Meh….If I want to explore the ramifications of retribution against evil, I’ll rewatch Munich, thank you. Come to think of it, my spy movie jones was only merely teased here, too. Can’t wait for December’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy to perhaps whet that appetite more fully.
5.5 Another Foreign Film Remade out of 10
