The Debt
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christensen, Tom Wilkinson
Director: John Madden
Rating: 4/5
The Debt marks the return to the director’s chair for John Madden, his first movie since Killshot back in 2008.
But he has brought together a super impressive and talented cast to deliver one of the best political thrillers of the year.
In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal.
Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in the Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth.
The Debt is a well written, well directed and well acted thriller as everything comes together almost perfectly to deliver a thrilling ride.
The movie tackles themes such as humanity, revenge and truth as the three agents struggle with the weight of responsibility of the task that has been given to the, especially when things go wrong, and with living a lie afterwards.
Madden masterly jumps back and forwards to tell this tale and there is a great twist - that I personally did not see coming but works beautifully.
The entire cast are great Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Marton Csokas put in great performances as the three young Mossad agents tasked with bringing the Nazi killer back to Israel.
Chastain’s performance in particular is superb as she shows why she is an actress that everyone is talking about.
She is strong and vulnerable at the same time as she struggles to hold herself together with Vogel, played pitch perfect by Christensen, whist being torn between two men.
Helen Mirren’s performance is also great as he struggle with the truth looms over the entire movie, despite her being missing for huge chunks of it - it’s great to see an older actress given the chance to taken on this kind of action role.
The Debt is a tense thriller that twists and turns at every opportunity as Madden keeps the audience glued to the action.
This is a tense political thriller with a pace that never gives up - it’s suspenseful and tense; which is just what you want from a movie in this genre.
The film does delve into a more personal side of the three agents but that emotion never really hits home - which is a major shame.
There is clearly a connection between David and Rachel but that doesn’t come through or isn’t as well explored as it might have been.
Despite this The Debt is one of the tensest movies that you will see this year - it will probably be overlooked come Oscar season but it really should be considered.
The Debt is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Helen Mirren