Movie Review: The Debt

Jessica Chastain

Director: John Madden
Stars: Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Tom Wilkinson, Sam Worthington, Martin Csokas
Genre(s): Drama, Thriller
Release Date: August 31, 2011
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

"The Debt," a remake of the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, is an exciting thriller that takes place in two distinct time periods and benefits tremendously from the commendable acting of its cast. In 1997, a tragedy causes retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) to confront a terrible secret that existed only among Rachel, Stephan, and former colleague Stephan (Ciaran Hinds). In 1966, the three (portrayed by Jessica Chastain, Martin Csokas, and Sam Worthington) worked together in Berlin to capture a Nazi who had perpetrated monstrous crimes during the Holocaust (Jesper Christensen).

Mirren is excellent, as would be expected of the dependable Oscar winner, yet it is newcomer Chastain, who steps up to the difficult task of playing the younger version of Mirren's Rachel, and embodies the character with strength yet vulnerability.

Unfortunately, Worthington's and Csokas' characters are fairly one-dimensional, and although they portray them convincingly, it is difficult to care about them as much as we are intended to.

English-language remakes of foreign films tend to forgo using subtitles entirely, in favor of having the actors speak English with recognizable accents. In "The Debt," the main characters' accents do not sound authentically Israeli, and at times the Mirren's British and Worthington's Australian accents emerge, but it is not distracting. Yet, the German language was utilized, which turned out to be beneficial in terms of increasing the credibility.

The romantic elements of the film are highly uninteresting and predictable, but perhaps screenwriters Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, and Peter Straughan wanted to increase the likability and relatability of its characters by creating these significant relationships.

The movie's ending is pulse-pounding and satisfying, leaving the audience with an almost "Lost"-like cliffhanger. A few of the sequences preceding it are somewhat melodramatic, with the writers reinforcing the morales a bit too much. It is clear that the characters' feelings of regret and loss are important to the plot, but occasionally too much time is spent on how these emotions are manifested in them.

Grade: B

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