Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Stephen Abell
This cold war spy story takes place in two time periods - 1965 and 1997. Three Mossad agents are sent into East Berlin to retrieve the Nazi war criminal. However, things do not go according to plan. The details of which have been repressed but are now threatening to break into the light and bring the agents and their mission into a very public eye.If you like spy thrillers you may like this one, it is beautifully filmed though a tad on the slow side with a story which isn't as strong as the acting.The writers do a great job with interweaving past with the present, especially where the secrets are concerned. Having Rachel's daughter publishing a book about her and the mission at the time when things are starting to unravel is a brilliant idea, though I don't think it's fully utilised and expanded upon, because when the truth is revealed it will make her daughter look inexperienced as an investigative reporter. This would have added greater depth and better characterisation of Helen Mirren's Rachel; which it needed. There was enough space within the story to accomplish this as there are scenes which are too drawn out. The ending is predictable and feels like it's been tagged on to give the story a happier ending. To me, it felt like a cop out and once again showed the differences between the Rachel characters.Another drawback is the secret itself. I for one cannot understand why they didn't tell the truth, to begin with. That way they could have just got on with rectifying the situation. It was this thought that through the rest of the film out of balance by making it feel weak and pointless.It was the acting, especially from the 1965 cast, which carried the story and the film. Chastain's Rachel is an intelligent and strong individual; this, however, is not the case with Mirren's Rachel who doesn't appear to have these characteristics. To be honest, only Wilkinson's and Csokas' Stephen Gold could be the same person. These differences in the main characters slightly detracted me from the movie.As for the direction, this could have been tighter at times to create an exciting atmosphere when needed and slower at other times to build suspense. Unfortunately, the director opts for a steady pace, which at times, is too slow and verges on boring. The locations are great and give the feel of the period, as does the lighting, Along with some nicely thought out camera shots, it adds strength and atmosphere to the film.I'd recommend this to all lovers of spy thrillers, though if you're new to the genre I wouldn't start with this film; it's not the best of its kind and may put you off watching other better spy thrillers. That said, it is worth at least one watch.
RocDot
The biggest mistake in this movie was the casting for the part of the Stephen Gold character! Was nobody over at Acme Central Casting that day? Was no one clever enough to see that Ciarán Hinds and Marton Csokas look alike and both should have been the older-younger versions of Stephen Gold, instead of Tom Wilkinson and Sam Worthington!? Someone sure was out to lunch that day, wow. Oh well.
dierregi
I usually like tense spy thrillers, but I was seriously disappointed by this one. The "real" action takes place in 1965, when three Mossad agents work in East Berlin to apprehend a Nazi criminal.Contrary to Mossad's reputation, these are the worst agents, ever. Two young men and a woman (Rachel, played by Chastain) who get entangled in a sex triangle and mess up their mission, because they are too busy with their cavorting.Besides being unprofessional in their behavior, they are also easily influenced by the Nazi criminal, turned into hostage. If it was me, I could not care less about the babbling of a criminal Nazi, but these three Jew agents listen to him as if he was the oracle of Delphi.Back to the future, in 1995, their dirty little secret is almost out in the open. The escaped Nazi is going to give an interview to an Ukranian newspaper. Therefore, the woman (older Rachel, played by Mirren) is sent to Ukraina to silence him for good. The movie ends with a geriatric denouement. Whatever is achieved falls into the category of "too little, too late". I seriously hope real agents are made of better stuff than these three. Also, spy movies deserve more engaging characters.
dromasca
'The Truth' or 'The Truth That Needs To Be Said'? this is one of the dilemmas facing the heroes of 'The Debt', which is quite an exotic entry in the list of films made by John Madden, the exoticism being that it's well closer to the pattern of routine Hollywood thrillers than movies like Shakespeare in Love or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.There are however a few reasons that make this film interesting, even if you are not necessarily a fan of Mossad action movies processed by the American commercial cinema filters. This is the story of an unfinished business which involves a team of Israeli idealistic young agents of Mossad trying to capture in the 60s one of the notorious war criminals modeled on the image of 'doctor' Mengele. Their mission takes them in no other place than East Berlin in the days of the Cold War, and when things go wrong they have to make extreme choices - not only about life and death, but also about absolute and convenient truth. The story alternates between the 60s and the 90s, which opens another kind of question mark about whether big mistakes can ever be fixed. Of course they can, it's Hollywood stuff after all. This does not necessarily result in a great movie.While the premises are interesting the execution is far from brilliant. Director Madden brings nothing new in a genre that had so many successes and even more failures, beyond quite a rigorous and detailed rendition of the East Berlin atmosphere. The biggest failure is however in the way he directs the characters of his Israeli heroes. They behave and talk like no Israeli, and even the setting of the scenes supposed to take place in Israel in Israeli location does not help. The approach is superficial and does not go too deep beyond the crust of the characters, and this crust does not seem genuine at all. I love Helen Mirren, she is best as queens or chief-detective roles, and I found even her acting as a retired agent in the RED series to be delicious. Here she undertakes another retired agent role, and I am sorry to say, she is not at her best. At the end of the screening I remained with the feeling that the makers of this film still have some 'Debt' to their viewers.
