> REVIEW
_____________________________________________________
The Debt (2011)
Every secret comes with a price…
_____________________________________________________
By Helen Adkins | September 2011
Focus Features/Miramax ©
DIRECTOR: John Madden
WRITER(S): Jane Goldman / Matthew Vaughn / Peter Straughan
The weight of expectation falls heavily on The Debt after the success of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Described as another ‘classy thriller’, comparison is inevitable especially with a cast of British heavyweights in Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds. It too is set in Cold-War Europe and written by TTSS’s Peter Straughan, alongside Matthew Vaughan and Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass).
But where TTSS was an atmospheric, cerebral thriller, The Debt gets the Hollywood treatment from director John Madden, who eschews slow burn for roller coaster, cerebral for sentimentality. In TTSS, the performances are powerful yet barely a voice is raised. It stays with you long after you’ve seen it. The Debt, as the cliché goes, is like a Chinese meal. Great while you’re watching, but almost forgotten by the time you’ve reached the door.
This is a shame because The Debt’s subject matter deserves more. Like Marathon Man (1976), this film deals with powerful themes; the fight for justice following the Second World War and it being seen to be done. A little restraint and thought could have gone a long way. Instead Madden throws a bucket of schmaltz over the whole thing and hopes for the best.
The film is set both in past and present. Middle-aged Israelites Rachel Singer (Mirren), Stephan Gold (Wilkinson) and David Peretz (Hinds) are celebrated in their country for a great deed, but also share a terrible secret. In fact, so racked with guilt is Peretz that he throws himself in front of an articulated lorry rather than face a book launch where it’s all being dragged up again.
The film then switches back to East Berlin 1965 to find out what the secret is (and what they all used to look like). They are Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Marton Csokas as Gold, three hardened Mossad agents brought together on a crucial mission to capture the elusive Dieter Vogel, aka the Surgeon of Birkenau, a fugitive Nazi doctor with Jewish blood on his hands.
The plan has been fifteen years in the making, so our heroes must prepare. They do so by practicing their killer moves in a safe flat, which inevitably allows Peretz and Rachel to get ‘close’. Under Gold’s jealous eye they go on to exchange deep smouldering looks, despite the fact that Peretz is supposedly off women after losing his entire family to the Nazi’s. But when Singer starts parading round in just a towel, he’s toast.
And so it continues. When the snatch goes wrong the gang are forced to take the Nazi back to their flat and keep him there. At this point you might expect some fascinating exploration of the killer/victim relationship, a la Silence of the Lambs. Instead Rachel and Sam continue to lock doe eyes, with plenty of hot silent tears streaking down faces to hammer the ‘unrequited love’ point home.
This is a great shame when the appetite for good Post-War/Holocaust/Nazi war criminals thrillers seems never to wane. So why overwhelm the plot with a sappy love tryst over more pertinent themes? When Peretz can no longer control himself and beats up the doctor after he insults Singer the result is total disaster for the mission. It leads us to the obvious question. If this plan was 15 years in the making, why were these rubbish lot chosen for the job in the first place?
Then there’s ‘the secret’ which never quite stacks up. Was keeping this secret really worth the hassle? Would it really be that bad to tell the truth in the first place?
There’s a feeling with this film that all concerned couldn’t quite decide what they wanted The Debt to be. Cold war thriller with cool fight scenes, a romance against a Cold-War backdrop, or examination of a subject matter that’s been well covered but always fascinates. Sadly, it’s tried to be all things to all men, confusing what could have been a much better film.
Mirren puts in another great performance and I suspect the ‘classy’ quote about this film referred to her alone. But it’s hard to care about Worthington’s character, whose ‘brooding’ is just sick puppy, or Chastain who does a great line in watery eyes but never really cuts it.
That said, if you take it for what it is, The Debt entertains with some great sequences, action and twists, just don’t go with Tinker in mind.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
The script veers from Marvel to Mills and Boon, and employs a whole host of
twists and turns to keep the audience gripped. Yet, there’s too much style over content and not enough examination of the serious subject at its core. 3
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
Madden delivers action aplenty but it lacks depth. Mirren saves the day with a powerful (restrained) performance, but there’s too much sentimentality and
heavy-handedness to make it great. 3
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Satisfying enough while it lasts but leaves you longing for more. 3
