The Debt

The Debt

Directed By: John Madden

Written By: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, and Peter Straughan

Plot:

 In 1965, three Mossad agents (Sam Worthington, Marton Czokas, & Jessica Chastain) abduct a Nazi War Criminal- with the intention of bringing him back to Israel for trial. In an attempted escape, he’s killed, and the three are hailed as heroes. Years later, a secret shared by the three (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, and Ciaran Hinds) comes back to haunt them and they must pay an old debt before their lives come crumbling down around them.

Review:

Jessica Chastain, brains and beauty, the triple threat. But seriously this chick has been in everything this summer. From the inspirational Tree of Life to the surprise hit The Help. I can tell you why. She is a fantastic actress. She really stole the movie away from everybody else besides maybe Helen Mirren who played an older version of her. The film revolved around Jessica’s and Helen’s character and her interactions with her fellow agents played by Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas. Sam Worthington is a very one dimensional actor and he pulls off the character well. Just don’t expect anything new and different out of him. Marton Csokas on the other hand was a lot more entertaining and brought a lot of life to his role. Tom Wilkerson and Ciaran Hinds also had some good performances but they were only in the film for a very small portion of the film.

Besides the acting, I would say that this film was a disappointment if I thought it was going to be something special in the first place. It was a movie that started out great and caught my attention but could not deliver all the way through. The pacing was all over the place and when a new development arose with only 30 minutes left in the film it made the climax seem ridiculous. This is because the first development that was realized was way more interesting than the second which made the end of the movie difficult to sit through. They took a very simple idea that was very by the books and tried to make it seem a lot cooler by making the story structure more interesting. 

Besides some good acting it could not make up for the content of this film. You should expect more out of something with a interesting premise revolving around Jews trying to take revenge against a Nazi war criminal and the cast attached to the project. I am sure this film will be played on television over and over again, so my recommendation is to wait for that to happen. 

Rating: 6/10