There are no "good guys" to be found in The Debt, not even the three Israeli agents who tracked down and killed an escaped Nazi war criminal known as the Surgeon of Birkenau. Based on Assef Bernstein's great 2007 film, the American version comes from a surprising source, director John Madden, who frankly most people haven't heard from since Shakespeare in Love
. Unlike the original, Madden's take is less political, more focused on human frailties, the psychological weight of deception, and the pitfalls of hero worship.The Debt bounces in time between 1965 and 1997, detailing the drastic changes in three Mossad agents. We're introduced to Rachel Singer(Helen Mirren older; Jessica Chastain younger), an ex-agent who has lived her entire adult life regarded as a hero by her people. Her daughter is publishing a book on her mother's dangerous exploits 30 years earlier, when she and two of her colleagues, David(Sam Worthington, Ciaran Hinds) and Stefan(Martin Csokas, Tom Wilkinson) were sent to track down and bring to justice Dieter Vogel, the Nazi war criminal hiding in plain sight as a physician. Things ultimately went bad, forcing Rachel to take up arms and kill the target. We see her do it. And yet something has haunted the elder Rachel ever since. She doesn't show remorse for his death, so it must be something else. David has gone from a dashing, quiet young man into a paranoid, depressed recluse. Stefan continues to work for the agency as a secretive high ranking official.
What is the secret that binds these three together still? For the answers, the film focuses the bulk of it's energy in the past, where we see the fresh faced trio at the onset of their task. They're full of nationalistic pride and zeal, ready to take on the challenge ahead of them, and we see the intricate planning and execution of the mission. Living in cramped quarters, an quiet rivalry for Rachel's affections breaks out between the two men, a small mistrust that threatens success. Rachel spearheads the investigation in the film's most gripping sequence, entering Dieter's fertility practice as a patient, putting her in the extremely awkward position of having a man who murdered thousands buried between her legs. Chastain is perfect in this anxious scene, capturing Rachel's mix of horror, stoic resolve, and twisted anticipation.
The energy and idealism that was once burning deep within them disappears quickly after things go belly up. Dieter is captured, but not without violent incident. Their superiors fail them, leaving the trio to stay in cramped quarters watching over their captive all-day and all-night. Rachel gets stir crazy, although she's unable to leave for fear of being recognized. The tables essentially turn, with them becoming trapped in their own home with a killer they'd just as soon see dead. When we finally see the events depicted that made them all famous, it's clear that they've been holding on to one whopper of a fish tale.
The Debt is like the baby brother of the Munich, another film similar in theme and in plot. The script by the Kick-Ass team of Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman(with Peter Straughan) is sparse but effective. I particularly love the contrasts it draws between the characters as unvarnished youths just wanting to defend their people, and later on as old, war torn vets beaten down by the burdens of their success. What they turn into is the side effect of national pride run amok, when heroes are built on a foundation of lies, and if the truth is ever known it could destroy an entire people.
Jessica Chastain, who appears to be Hollywood's new "It" girl, gives an effective, understated performance. The same goes for Mirren, more reserved than we usually see her. My only complaint is that I wish she, and the uber talented Hinds and Wilkinson, had more to do. Worthington continues to be a perplexing actor for me. I don't know what people see in him, and here he's as lifeless as a cigar store Indian. Csokas, on the other hand, gives the film an arrogant energy it so desperately needs.
The Debit is a solid, taut espionage tale with a number of strong performances, but it loses ground the more it tries to marry up the characters in the past with those in the present.The problems arise mostly because the story is so heavily set in the past that we only get a glimpse at the results of years of deceit. What changed David into the depressed and suicidal man he became? Rachel is clearly the film's focus, and yet we never really get to know her moral struggle. Instead we see how damaged she is emotionally presented to us rather flatly in the physical form of a permanent scar on her face. The story would've been better served by letting us see Rachel living her life indulging in this very choreographed, frequently repeated lie. Instead we get her as a geriatric pulled out of retirement for one last silly mission. That's not the way to go out for a film that was once considered a possible Best Picture contender.
