THE DEBT
BY JAKE MATHISON
September 5, 2011
Starring: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, and Sam Worthington
Directed by: John Madden
Written by: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan
The Debt is a stab at a decent film; it just doesn't quite pierce the heart. There's enough to digest though, as we relive the botched events of an Israeli undercover unit's mission to smuggle a particularly nasty Nazi war criminal out of divided 1960s Berlin. Yes, it's a whole lot of heavy-handedness-- how could it not be with a title like The Debt? After all, this is a film about revenge, devotion to one's ideals, the perception of truth, and the things we're ultimately willing to live with. Unfortunately, while these are certainly weighty topics to discuss, the film's general unevenness leaves you wondering whether you'll ever get the chance to do so. It's really a tale of two films, one I liked very much and another possessed of an infectious dullness threatening to sabotage the other half like a suicidal Siamese twin. Worse yet, director John Madden's (Shakespeare in Love, Proof) pedestrian attempt at something akin to a non-linear time-frame mostly serves to barricade the fractured story-lines from each other rather than allowing them to gel cohesively.
Quite frankly, I expected more from a cast that bills Academy aces Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton). But for their ilk, they are also surprisingly uneven. Accents are inconsistent, intentions are overplayed, and Aussie Sam Worthington (Avatar) is simply overwhelmed. The true notable exception is rising star Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life, The Help), who throughout the film hides her character behind a fascinating wall of sadness and intensity that at times hypnotically mirrors her mission, her colleagues, and even her captive like a reflecting pool. This is a depth that even the seasoned Mirren fails to find in playing the same character. Ultimately though, the greatest tragedy of The Debt is its slumbering, snail-paced, and uber-convenient ending that forces the audience to suffer through a seemingly endless build-up that culminates with wildly unnecessary ambiguity-- as if the projectionist mistakenly clipped off a few reels too many. In the end, The Debt was always going to be a straight-forward film, maybe even a good one; somebody just forgot to tell The Debt that.
2.5/5
The Debt is rated R for some violence and language
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