Star - Helen Mirren
Genre - Thriller
Cert - 15
Country - USA
Run Time - 114 minutes
Rental - 2.99p per night @ Blockbuster
-------------------------------------------------


In January 2010 a crack team of 14 Mossad assassins ( allegedly) under false names and disguises were sent to kill 'Mahmoud al-Mabhouh', a senior Hamas commander and one of the founders of the Palestinian 'al-Qassam' Brigade, eliminated by being drugged with succinylcholine, a quick-acting paralytic, and then suffocated in his room in a five-star Dubai hotel. The false identities, which included passports from all over the world (and one or two Brits), were gathered up and then quickly released by the Dubai police into the public domain. What is interesting here is the people in the passport photos that were supposed to have had their documents stolen also remained untraced. Therefore the suspicion must be that these were the people that actually did it and Mossad cynically released their names to the press soon after the deed was done so to impress to the whole world that there are many countries acting against Palestine and so the Jews are in the right with their often brutal military stance to defend their borders. Why would they allow another holocaust from the Muslims who seem to detest them?

Israel have always had hit-squads, Operation Wrath of God', the revenge for the Munich Olympics massacre, bringing them to prominence, Spielberg's excellent film 'Munich' covering that one very nicely. The Debt is the latest in that mildly pro Israel genre and a remake of the 2007 Israeli foreign language film of the same name, the latest in a long line of subtitled hits to be quickly remade for Hollywood to reach a wider commercial audience. Israeli movies tend to be polemics against their enemies and this no different, as many Jews in Hollywood as the Holy Land. I personally prefer the originals but if it means one less Jennifer Aniston romcom if Hollywood money goes elsewhere then so be it.

---The Cast---

Helen Mirren ... Rachel Singer
Tom Wilkinson ... Stephan Gold
Ciarán Hinds ... David Peretz
Romi Aboulafia ... Sarah Gold
Tomer Ben David ... Sarah's Husband
Ohev Ben David ... Sarah's Son
Jessica Chastain ... Young Rachel
Marton Csokas ... Young Stephan
Sam Worthington ... Young David
Jesper Christensen ... Doktor Bernhardt / Dieter Vogel

---The Plot---

Its 1997 and journalist Sarah Gold (Romi Aboulafia) is launching her new book, which tells the real life story of her heroic mother Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) and her exploits in Mossad, one of three celebrated agents sent to Berlin to capture and kidnap a (fictional) Nazi war criminal, Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), the so-called 'The Surgeon of Birkenau', who 'experimented' on the Jews in the death camps, this book a celebration of that mission. Agent number two is also at the book launch, that of her ex-husband Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson), now in a wheel chair, courtesy of Hamas, the two hooking up on the same mission from the book.

Although Rachael is proud of her daughter there is clearly unease with her ex husband at the whole occasion. We learn why when we hear that the third agent, David Peretz (Ciarán Hinds), has just killed himself, the guilt of a secret the trio have been burdened with over the thirty years since their big mission just too much for him now the book is out, a book that may provoke a truth that is unpalatable for all.

As mum reads from the book to the assembled dignitaries, we flashback to the operation, 1967 in divided Berlin, where we meet the younger versions of our agents, quiet but confident Rachel (Jessica Chastain), cocky and arrogant Stephan (Marton Csokas) and the thoughtful David (Sam Worthington), pulled together for the mission from three different countries and clearly very proficient at what they do, Stephan the team leader.

Vogel is working in the city as a gynecologist, his alias Doctor Bernhardt, the plan for Rachel to be his patient so she can work out how to incapacitate him and the boys do the rest, then smuggle him out of East Germany to face justice in Israel. But with three attractive and fit people in the same safe house the sexual chemistry takes over and a love triangle of sort's forms as they prepare for orders from Tel Aviv to snatch Vogel, a distraction that could jeopardize the mission. But as we flash back to just after the book reading its clear it didn't happen as written and something went badly wrong and that wrong has to be put right, 'The Debt', why David went under a truck and why Rachael is going to have brush up her spy craft and dust down her cobwebs to finish the job...


--------Quote---------

Doktor Bernhardt: Do it. You want to do it... Do it. Kill me!
Doktor Bernhardt: That's right. I'd forgotten. You Jews never knew how to kill. Only how to die

---The Result---

If you enjoy a taught and exciting thriller that looks great and dressed up in Sunday best with a sexy cast then this is for you. If you get all het up over Israel and Middle-East politics and expect that to be explored here then this may not be for you, the subject matter coming second in pursuit of action and emotion. I didn't see the original but I presume the remake has been dumbed down a bit by developing the love story and thinning out the politics that can often put people off of these movies. It does briefly flirt with controversy with questions on how the Holocaust was allowed to happen and why the Nazi's had such an easy ride doing it but the film quickly back on safe ground with a romantic clinch or touch at that point, a suggestion or two that the Jews were too selfish to act together and stop the Holocaust and so that the real dishonor at the heart of the films message.

Its competently acted and a breeze for the always excellent Tom Wilkinson and the remarkably still sexy Helen Mirren at 64. The star of the show is Jessica Chastain as the young Rachel although the cast are somewhat undermined by the way this film drags on and on in the middle. It needed a good haircut. That aside it was good fun and edgy enough to steer well clear of the dumb action genre and with British director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) behind the camera it looks good and of the period. When a film looks authentic that can often be enough to stick with it. I still think Munich was much the better film though.

Its cost $20 million to make but did a healthy $45 million back and so considered a success by the bean counters. Its appeal would be mum and dad with a glass of wine or a single guys and so not the Jennifer Aniston crowd. But its main purpose is to reinforce the feeling that Jews deserve their own state and those Nazi war criminals are still out there to bring back the horror, dare I say the Muslims are the new Nazis to Jews, Argentina alone believed to have taken in over 4000 war criminals after the war. What we also know is a lot of these Nazi scientists that experimented in the death camps were quietly recruited by countries like America to use their experiment data to perfect things like space suits and ejector seats. But they don't talk about that in Hollywood.


------Ratings-----
Imdb.com - 6.9/10 (22,490 votes)
Metacritic.com - 65% critic's approval
Rottentomatos.com - 76% critic's approval

------Critics----

The Guardian - "Solid, workmanlike storytelling is what's on offer in this meaty thriller with robust and satisfying star turns"

The Times - "Offers something for those looking for a film with more on its mind than simple set-pieces"

The New Yorker - "There is an awkward, irresoluble tension between the movie's urge to thrill and the weighty pull of the historical obligations that it seeks to assume. How much, to be blunt, should we be enjoying ourselves?

The LA Times - "If you like your spy thrillers tense, gripping and meaningful, The Debt should be on the top of your must-see list".

--------Special Features--------

-A look inside Doubt-

Behind the scenes drivel

-The Berlin Affair:The Triangle at the Cetre of the Debt-

As above.

----------------------------------------