Film Review: "The Debt"

"The Debt" is a serviceable dramatic thriller, a film that doesn't break any new ground in the genre but is nonetheless an entertaining enough two-and-a-half hours. The film opens in 1997 as a book is being published that tells the story of a group of three Mossad agents who were tasked with capturing Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christiansen), better known as the "Surgeon of Birkenau," and bringing him to trial for the horrible atrocities he committed during the Holocaust. It's clear early on that the now retired agents, Rachel (Helen Mirren), Stephan (Tom Wilkinson), and David (Ciaran Hinds) know that the book doesn't tell the whole truth about their mission, and the film then jumps back in time, showing us what actually happened thirty years before.

Roughly the first half of the film deals with the 1967 mission to capture Vogel, while the latter half shows the protagonists trying to come to terms with the truths that they've been hiding all this time. For me, the first half was definitely the more compelling portion of the film. It's a pretty straightforward men on a mission story (or in this case one woman and two men), but director John Madden (best known for "Shakespeare in Love") does a great job of introducing us to the younger characters and building tension as the mission is carried out. The younger versions of the three agents are played by Jessica Chastain (as Rachel), Sam Worthington (as David), and Marton Csokas (as Stephan). All six of the lead performances are excellent, though Hinds doesn't get as much screen time as the others. Chastain stands out in particular though as the younger Rachel, a woman on her first field assignment who, for reasons I won't reveal so as to not spoil the story, ends up being the focus of the entire story. This year has proven to be a major coming out party for Chastain, as she's had roles in no less than four films. I've seen her in three of them, and have yet to see a performance from her that isn't great. The second half of the film is fine as well, but it becomes solely focused on Rachel, and lacks the interplay between the characters that allows the film to breathe more.

Overall I think my opening statement sums this film up pretty well. It's a standard dramatic thriller, one that's well acted and executed and also poses some interesting questions about truth versus cover-ups, and what lengths people will go to to keep their names clean. It's not groundbreaking, but it's a solid enough film.

"The Debt" is rated R for some violence and language.
Running time: 113 minutes.
Released domestically on August 31, 2011, by Focus Features.
2.5 stars out of 4.