Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christensen, Marton Csokas, Ciarán Hinds and Tom Wilkinson
Directed By: John Madden
Screenplay By: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan
Based on the Film “Ha-Hov” Written By: Assafe Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum
Produced By: Matthew Vaughn, Kris Thykier, Eduardo Rossoff and Eitan Evan
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Rating: R, for some violence and language.
Running Time: Approximately 114 minutes
Website: SeeTheDebt.com
Budget: $20 million
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Release Date: August 31, 2011
A remake of a little-seen 2007 Israeli drama Ha-Hov, The Debt is a sufficient thriller directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) that casts Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (The Queen) opposite Oscar-nominee Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton) and veteran character actor Ciarán Hinds (There Will Be Blood, Munich) as a trio of highly-respected veteran Mossad (Israel’s secret service) agents who are thrust back into each other’s lives after 20-some years thanks to the publication of a book that details the supposed exploits that made them famous.
It’s 1997, and Rachel’s (Mirren) adult daughter’s book has been published to much public interest. The book brings up old feelings and threatens to unearth long-held secrets about what really went down between the three while on assignment in East Berlin in 1965 and 1966 to capture a notorious Nazi officer by the name of Dieter Vogel (payed by Jesper Christiansen and clearly modeled after real-life “Angel of Death” Joseph Mengele). Years earlier, during the second World War, Vogel performed heinous experiments on Jews in concentration camps. Now the monster is living a relatively quiet existence as an obstetrician in East Berlin.
Behind enemy lines, Stefan (Marton Csokas) oversees the mission, while the younger Rachel (current “It” girl Jessica Chastain) and David (Sam Worthington, Avatar) pose as a married couple to get close to Vogel in order to nab him. They succeed in capturing Vogel, but things get complicated when they all are holed up in a safe house, trying to formulate a plan to escape East Berlin with the evil doctor in tow. Things don’t pan out quite the way they planned. However, upon their return to Israel, they are hailed as heroes. All three express apprehension about their newfound notoriety, but go along with the spectacle despite their shared misgivings.
Hinds, who also played a hunted Israeli agent in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film, Munich, plays the elder David and Wilkinson plays the elder Stefan. Of the 1997 configuration, Mirren steals the show, scarred face and all. Much as she did in last year’s action comedy RED opposite Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, she totally convinces the audience that she’s not a woman you’d want to toil with because not only would you lose, you’d lose in ways you’d never imagine. Of the younger trio, rising star Chastain, who looks absolutely nothing like Mirren, is the MVP. As she exhibited in The Help, she has that winning combination of talent, beauty, smarts and personality that’s so rare nowadays. Women like her and men gravitate toward her. It’ll be interesting to see her eventually play a villainous character with nary a redeeming quality and still garner audience support.
Economically directed by Madden, The Debt is a welcome late-summer entry. It doesn’t fall prey to the doldrums one has come to expect from late-summer fare, which is almost always bottom of the barrel. Besides, how could you not give brownie points to a flawed, yet effective espionage thriller that allows Helen Mirren to issue her own brand of magnum force?
2.5 Stars
