It’s challenging to be famous for doing something heroic. Constantly recognized for your accomplishments. Continually asked to repeat the stories of your life for the benefit of your admiring fellow citizens. Being held up as an example for all. While gratifying, it can also wear on you. But then imagine that your fame and success are based on a lie.
The Debt is a film about the lifelong burdens of maintaining such a lie. It’s also an exciting thriller, a character study, and a bit of a romance. And it’s very, very good.
Though the actual nature of this lie isn’t revealed until well past the halfway mark, its existence is no spoiler. From the beginning, we see grim expressions and furtive glances from three former Mossad agents celebrated for capturing a Nazi war criminal in 1966 Communist Germany. Chief among these is Rachel (Helen Mirren), whose daughter has just published a book about the story. Clearly, she and her colleagues know something isn’t right with the story they tell.
In fact, this is the sort of movie where everyone wears a grim expression most of the time, in order to cover up not only their secrets but their emotions as well. The script – by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan (based on a 2007 Israeli film) – is drenched in double-meaning and subtext, and it’s fascinating to know these characters fully understand that what is being said is often not what is being talked about.
Though we follow the older Rachel throughout the story, most of the film takes place in flashback to the mission that went wrong. Young Rachel (Jessica Chastain) arrives in East Berlin and meets her fellow agents, David and Stephan (Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas). Mossad has tracked down Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), known as the Surgeon of Birkenau for his horrible acts of cruelty in the Nazi concentration camps, and it’s their job to capture him and smuggle him through the Iron Curtain to face justice. Vogel is working as an Ob/Gyn, and Rachel and David are to pose as a young married couple consulting him for a fertility problem. The medical scenes are routine, yet chilling in context, one example of John Madden’s fine direction.
Vogel is captured, but events cause the agents to abort his extraction, and he ends up confined in their apartment while they figure out what to do next. Things get worse from there, and the result percolates through to later events that Rachel must resolve.
Mirren is the big star here, obviously, and she’s great, but her performance would carry no weight without Chastain, who is brilliant. Worthington and Csokas are worthy companions, as are Ciarán Hinds and Tom Wilkinson, who play the older David and Stephan in minor roles. But most impressive is Christensen, who proves that an old man loses none of the intelligence, strength, or ability to commit evil.
The ending pushes things a bit, but it ties up the story and doesn’t deflate what’s come before. The Debt is riveting, and well worth a look.
Tags: movie review
About the author: David Raitt
David Raitt is a writer and lover of pop culture. He lives in Oakville. He has also worked as an actor for The Second City, and has written, produced and performed his own sketch comedy, including the Canadian Comedy Award-nominated ALL THE RAGE. Semi-retired from performing, he still teaches improv and communications skills to students and corporate groups through his association with The Second City. Check out Dave's website at http://davidraitt.com
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