i'm not sure what drew me to seeing this movie. sure it fits into my love of espionage - esque thrillers. but that was pretty much it. i didn't have any invested interest in any of the actors. i liked them well enough but nothing really compared to my obsessive desire to see any and everything with james mcavoy or jude law in it. (god help me if they are ever in the same movie together) i think what i was drawn to was that fact that it was an intellectual movie. this summer, as with every summer, it's always an ULTIMATE BLOW YOUR EYES OUT OF YOUR SOCKETS BLOCKBUSTER EXTRAVAGANZA! (also in 3D), and usually by the end of july i'm done with that shit. my brain craaaaves stimulation of the intellectual variety.so to be given this little morsel of a teaser to oscar season was a treat for me. i'm not saying this was an oscar worthy movie... it wasn't. but it was good. and a good transition piece from the action packed summer movies to the intelligent fall and winter films. i enjoyed 90% of the movie... the ending was just a little unexpected? i don't what to say about it. i don't want to spoil it for anyone who might read this so i can't really go into details but i guess i can say that old people engaging in hand to hand combat is just slightly... confusing? for me. it's just rare that i think of someone my grandma's age punching someone in the face. don't get me wrong, the ending was good but it was just odd to witness.
the summary will be short and vague since writing too much will give away too much. rachel, on the eve of her daughters' book release is haunted by some shady shit she and two fellow spies did during the time after ww2 and the holocaust. the movie is told in a flashback form and so much of it happens in the late '60s. rachel, david and stefan are tasked with finding a nazi war criminal in east berlin and bringing him to west berlin and to justice for the sick experiments he did on children during the holocaust. they botch the mission and are basically fucked because they have this dangerous man kidnapped and nothing to do with him. the "doktor" slowly tortures the 3 with derogatory jewish slurs and comments until one of them snaps and beats his face into looking like ground beef. then... oh shit he escapes. rachel is the only one with this scumbag when he pulls a houdini so he overpowers her and that's all i can really say. sorry. look it up on wikipedia if you want the play by play. it is in my nature not to ruin good movies.
there are a lot of good things in this flick. the acting is great. i liked the darkness of the film both in content and delivery. the material was slightly heavy, but didn't delve too much into the horrific tragedy of the holocaust. the cinematography was dark but still very crisp. it was a serious movie with almost a faint trace of documentary inspiration. i think i would have liked the movie more if the whole thing just took place in the 60's and didn't have the time changes or the sometimes confusing actor swaps. there was something off with the young-old actor choices. the 2 men who played david looking nothing alike (sam worthington and ciaran hinds) nor did the 2 men playing stefan (marton csokas and tom wilkinson). and while the scenes involving helen mirren doing spy stuff was a little unusual they were still pretty riveting. other than that everything was pretty great. i would absolutely recommend this to other people and might even watch it again when it comes out on dvd.
the debt :: b+
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