Directed by:
John MaddenCinematography:
Ben DavisComposer:
Thomas NewmanCast:
Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciarán Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, Sam Worthington, Jesper Christensen, Romi Aboulafia, Cassandra Church (more)VOD (2)
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The story begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by Israel because of the secret mission that they embarked on for their country back in 1965-1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington tracked down Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), the feared Surgeon of Birkenau, in East Berlin. While Rachel found herself grappling with romantic feelings during the mission, the net around Vogel was tightened by using her as bait. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations that compel Rachel to take matters into her own hands. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
Very respectable, both as a psychological drama and as a suspenseful thriller. However, it would have been better to focus more on one or the other. The Debt could have then found a more distinctive place in cinema alongside, for example, the dramatic Munich or the thriller Valkyrie, next to which it is more likely to gather dust as it is. John Madden tries at all costs to engage American viewers while intellectually fulfilling Europeans and narrowly misses the mark. Ignore the ending, which is utterly inappropriate and calls my four-star rating into question.
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If this movie had been made a few years later, Jessica Chastain would have visited Prague sooner than she managed to with the movie Zookeeper’s Wife. I’m sure of that. You see you can feel Prague’s good old architecture from this film, which is also quite similar in Budapest. That’s why they use Budapest to shoot East Berlin every now and then. Nevertheless, I watched this movie mainly because of Jessica, who once again put in an incredible acting performance. It was a bit worse with the story that tries to look very interesting, spy-like and fateful, but it’s actually about one botched operation and the related lie. Nothing too big, nothing too complicated. The atmosphere is definitely good, but you sort of suspect all the time how things will eventually turn out and you have no reason to yearn for the ending from the very start, which is a pity for a movie like this.
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As I've grown older, my perspective on movies and series I watched years ago has certainly shifted, and this film is a prime example. At one point, chasing Nazis might have seemed justified, but seeing the recent outcomes of such actions feels like kicking someone who's already unconscious. I'm not here to defend anyone, but dragging elderly folks in near-vegetative states to court, with more tubes and wires than Robocop, doesn't seem to have a point. What kind of punishment will they get? Life imprisonment? Right. The blindfolded lady with scales must be having a good laugh. Anyway, this film captured a time when such actions seemed more sensible, and I particularly enjoyed the part set in Berlin. However, the part set in the present and the ending was executed so poorly that I debated whether it deserved that third star for quite some time. / Lesson learned: While we played cops and robbers as children, kids in Israel apparently played games like Simon and the Nazis.3*-
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(This review contains SPOILERS.) Vagina dentata. Those who know a woman’s secret (rosebud) will not be able to get over it. Whereas the men are punished for their weakness for the opposite sex, the woman is tormented because she failed to shoot her nemesis with a phallic weapon (based on the information as it is conveyed to us, Vogel knows the most about her). She has thus wrongly enjoyed the benefits of the “masculine” world for thirty years; her legitimacy does not apply. It’s as if the inner suffering wasn’t enough; the confrontation with her materialised subconscious (the connection is emphasised by Vogel’s appearance in Rachel's dream; he thus penetrated not only her body, but also her mind) has cost her her beauty. For the rest of her life, she will have a face disfigured by a conspicuous scar. This is probably only one of the reasons that she spends years with Stefan, whom she obviously does not love. Another thing that keeps them together is a shared lie – as spouses, they can easily ensure that the other will not divulge what the public should not hear. Their life together is thus based on distrust. The elimination of men, or rather their manhood (Stefan is paralysed “only” from the waist down), represents the real objective of the vengeful mission of the film’s main character, Rachel, a woman driven by her own frustration: She has to deny her true identity, reveal her genitals to a sadistic doctor, face aggressive assaults from a man who has always loved his country more than her… Like in a slasher movie, she ultimately becomes the “final girl”, which she is destined to become as the only strong character from the beginning. Vogel is reminiscent of a horror-movie monster, Stefan doesn’t stand out with many positive qualities and David plays a submissive role in the love triangle from the beginning (in the fights, he’s a bit actor playing the victim who ends up on the ground; he even cooks). ___ I realise that a more thorough viewing (I’ve seen the film only once so far) would reveal the variability of the opinions present here, as well as the fact that this is not a model film for the chosen type of interpretation. At the same time, it allows such an interpretation, which is mainly what I intended to point out with this “alternative” review. And otherwise, The Debt is a thriller that works superbly with the characters’ motivations (I like Jessica Chastain all the more) and the atmosphere (classic submarine), but it works better in the first half and rather in individual scenes (the train) than in the second half and especially in the ending, when the contradictory nature of its dramatic structure becomes apparent (the film suddenly solves a different problem) along with the gratuitousness of the initially delightfully bold narrative low blows. 75%
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Apart from the unnecessarily and artificially escalated ending, it is essentially a meticulously crafted work of art that is atmospheric, excellently acted, and fantastically orchestrated. Those who enjoy dirty Germany, the theme of World War II, and the legendary German butchers will not be disappointed. Jesper Christensen is truly demonic in his role as the main villain. Above all, the dialogues with the Mossad agents are unforgettable. John Madden has always been somewhat soft, but this is a film that might make me start to respect him. It can be watched multiple times, which is quite rare for a film with such a theme.
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