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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 25 August 2011
This a movie review of THE DEBT. |
“We are not animals. Remember what we are, and what we are not”, David.
There is something so satisfying in a Nazi-hunter film. Bringing to justice “the slime of humanity”, to quote Henry Jones (Sean Connery) in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. Real life heroics can be seen in the documentary I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU: THE LIFE & LEGACY OF SIMON WIESENTHAL. Here, we have a thriller from director John Madden, and writers Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan. Madden is a safe pair of hands (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, MRS BROWN), Vaughn and Goldman are coming off X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and KICK-ASS, and Straughan wrote the screenplay for THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. There is some strong filmmaking pedigree. Couple that with a striking cast: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, Ciaran Hinds, Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas. There was much to anticipate. And largely THE DEBT delivers.
There is something so satisfying in a Nazi-hunter film. Bringing to justice “the slime of humanity”, to quote Henry Jones (Sean Connery) in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. Real life heroics can be seen in the documentary I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU: THE LIFE & LEGACY OF SIMON WIESENTHAL. Here, we have a thriller from director John Madden, and writers Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan. Madden is a safe pair of hands (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, MRS BROWN), Vaughn and Goldman are coming off X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and KICK-ASS, and Straughan wrote the screenplay for THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. There is some strong filmmaking pedigree. Couple that with a striking cast: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, Ciaran Hinds, Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas. There was much to anticipate. And largely THE DEBT delivers.
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The film jumps between 1965 and 1997, with the audience viewing the older and younger Rachel (Mirren-Chastain), Stephan (Wilkinson-Csokas) and David (Hinds -Worthington). The catalyst for retrospection is a book from the daughter of Rachel and Stephan about the trio who found and killed the “Surgeon of Birkenau”, Dieter Vogel – a Nazi sadist who experimented on concentration camp detainees. The film opens with Rachel killing him on New Year’s Eve after he gave her that scar on her cheek. And that is the major theme of the film; scars on a racial, national and individual level. In 1965 these three agents of Mosad were given a mission to enter East Germany, verify Vogel and bring him back to Israel for trial. It seems that they were unable to do the last part, but were lauded for attaining justice none-the-less.
The film then reconstructs events, while showing the three in 1997 and explaining their deeply sombre demeanour. THE DEBT then mixes in themes of truth and self-knowledge, with a twist revelation that was unexpected and interesting. The acting brings the film to life, even the wooden Worthington doesn’t derail proceedings – the film playing to his taciturn strength that Somersault also did. Mirren and Wilkinson scene-chewing together is a joy to watch. It made me wonder what’s happened to Madden’s other film, KILLSHOT, made in 2008.
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