Jessica
Chastain is suddenly everywhere. I wonder if she and Michael Fassbender
have followed the same trajectory... In any case, a girl could do worse
than to play the same role as Helen Mirren, albeit in flashback. Mirren
is the big-name attraction to The Debt, a story of intrigue from years ago. Based on the Israeli film Ha Hov,
Mirren plays Rachel, a retired Mossad agent whose career was made with
the capture and death of the man known as the Surgeon of Birkenau. It
was Rachel’s first field mission when she joined David and Stephen in a
leaky two-bedroom apartment in 1965 Berlin. Together the three of them
planned to infiltrate the Nazi’s new life, take him captive, and bring
him to Israel to stand trial. Of course, the best laid plans... don’t
always work out.
Directed by John Madden (who showed us Shakespeare in Love), The Debt is a remake with a solid story that gets a little lost in the translation. Part of its trouble is the poor casting - not that the actors are without talent, quite the contrary - but flashback films are best served by performers who resemble one another. In theatre this is less of a problem, where the actors are more represented by their movement than their big-screen faces, and often connected through costume choices. Cinema is more about facial expression, dramas dominated by close-ups and middle shots that focus on the look of the scene. It’s easy enough to align Mirren with Chastain (the only woman, and with a scar across her right cheek), but the men are poorly matched to their older/younger selves. Particularly Ciarán Hinds, who is a brilliant actor wasted in this film, and hardly the man to play the 1997 version of David, whose 1965 counterpart is Avatar star Sam Worthington. As for the suave but volatile Stephan, Martin Csokas (whom I enjoyed so much in The Tree) shares the role with Tom Wilkinson. I had a difficult time discussing the film with my companion as I was unable keep the men attached to the right role. It was easy to identify the actors - less simple to tie the actors to a character. I have a feeling that The Debt would work much better as a novel.
There’s no doubt that the performances themselves are excellent, Mirren being the unspoken leader of the cast. Her Rachel is unusually passive for Mirren, reserved but with purpose. Chastain, who was pitch-perfect in The Help and Oscar-nominated for Tree of Life, is lovely even as Rachel lacks the confidence of a more experienced agent. She’s also not a spy of the Angelina Jolie ilk - in mid-60s Germany, she’s still more identifiable by sexist stereotypes than anything else. Still, the mission requires a woman - the Nazi surgeon’s post-war career is as a gynecologist. The men are of little use in this case, and the cause of all the trouble. Perhaps The Debt is actually a feminist film? (Probably not.) Anyway, Worthington is the thoughtful and sensitive one, Czokas channels a little bit of Brando.
I don’t want to say much more, because the unexpected turns in the plot are what make the film truly work. As I said, it’s a good story - just a little lost in translation.
Directed by John Madden (who showed us Shakespeare in Love), The Debt is a remake with a solid story that gets a little lost in the translation. Part of its trouble is the poor casting - not that the actors are without talent, quite the contrary - but flashback films are best served by performers who resemble one another. In theatre this is less of a problem, where the actors are more represented by their movement than their big-screen faces, and often connected through costume choices. Cinema is more about facial expression, dramas dominated by close-ups and middle shots that focus on the look of the scene. It’s easy enough to align Mirren with Chastain (the only woman, and with a scar across her right cheek), but the men are poorly matched to their older/younger selves. Particularly Ciarán Hinds, who is a brilliant actor wasted in this film, and hardly the man to play the 1997 version of David, whose 1965 counterpart is Avatar star Sam Worthington. As for the suave but volatile Stephan, Martin Csokas (whom I enjoyed so much in The Tree) shares the role with Tom Wilkinson. I had a difficult time discussing the film with my companion as I was unable keep the men attached to the right role. It was easy to identify the actors - less simple to tie the actors to a character. I have a feeling that The Debt would work much better as a novel.
There’s no doubt that the performances themselves are excellent, Mirren being the unspoken leader of the cast. Her Rachel is unusually passive for Mirren, reserved but with purpose. Chastain, who was pitch-perfect in The Help and Oscar-nominated for Tree of Life, is lovely even as Rachel lacks the confidence of a more experienced agent. She’s also not a spy of the Angelina Jolie ilk - in mid-60s Germany, she’s still more identifiable by sexist stereotypes than anything else. Still, the mission requires a woman - the Nazi surgeon’s post-war career is as a gynecologist. The men are of little use in this case, and the cause of all the trouble. Perhaps The Debt is actually a feminist film? (Probably not.) Anyway, Worthington is the thoughtful and sensitive one, Czokas channels a little bit of Brando.
I don’t want to say much more, because the unexpected turns in the plot are what make the film truly work. As I said, it’s a good story - just a little lost in translation.
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