Film Review: The Debt

The Debt is an accomplished thriller that audiences should find absorbing. The various aspects combine together effectively to produce an atmospheric film that retains a sense of plausibility.

In 1997, the daughter of two former Mossad agents publishes a book detailing their accomplishments. Rachel and Stefan, along with fellow agent David, undertook a mission to track down a Nazi war criminal in 1966. The team accomplished their mission with a few obstacles, but not everything is quite as it seems on the pages of their daughter’s book…

The one dominant factor that makes The Debt work so well is its excellent screenplay. The Debt, a remake of a 1997 Israeli film, was written by Matthew Vaughan, Jane Goodman and Peter Straughan. The characters are highly believable, as is the dialogue. The film plunges viewers into a world that will be foreign to the vast majority. Yet, the events that occur seem authentic given the context.

The format of the film allows tension to build in a naturalistic manner. This begins quite slowly, but exceeds to a very tense finale. It is the tension and mystery that grips viewers the most. For the most part, The Debt remains plausible. It is this facet that distinguishes the film from so many other recent thrillers that are let down by incredulous plot twists.

The Debt has a particular visual style that imbues the entire film. The colours are muted, and the film seems to be saturated by a blue tone. This is particularly pertinent in the scenes set in the apartment. The visual style of the film helps to enhance the sense of claustrophobia. Director John Madden, along with cinematographer Ben Davis and art directors Peter Francis and Dominic Masters, have done an excellent job in making these scenes appear cramped, closed and tense.

Performances in The Debt are good all round. Helen Mirren brings gravitas to the role of Rachel. Playing the younger Rachel, Jessica Chastain shows why she has been much in demand this year. Sam Worthington is controlled as the younger David, while Marton Csokas brings more personality as the young Stephan.

The Debt may cause restlessness in audiences more acclimatised to breakneck pacing and constant action. Nonetheless, it is a solid thriller that should satisfy fans of the genre.

The Empire Big Screen Diaries – Day 3

Like the protagonist on an epic quest in a sword and sorcery film, I embarked on the final day of Empire Big Screen. First order of business was the Paramount Showcase. After a brief video animating the company’s biggest films, a series of trailers were shown. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was followed by Paranormal Activity 3 and Like Crazy. After this, a featurette on Cowboys and Aliens was screened, introduced by Jon Favreau (on video). We also got to see a short clip of the Footloose remake, and the trailer for The Devil Inside (which was highly reminiscent of last year’s The Last Exorcism). Two clips of the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots were then screened. Te footage was great; the film looks as if it will be very funny. To round things off, footage of The Adventures of Tin Tin was screened with a message from producer Peter Jackson and director Steven Spielberg. The clips looked good, but I always think humans in CG-animation look weird.

After a brief interlude, the Lionsgate Showcase began. After the trailer for A Dangerous Method was shown, we got to see footage from Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus. Set in the modern day but with the original Shakespearean dialogue, the film looks interesting if a little unusual. The showcase was rounded up by four trailers – 50/50, Abduction, Warrior and Conan the Barbarian.

Seizing the opportunity for a proper lunch break, we headed to Armadillo (again). My fish burger was nice, but I felt bad that we didn’t leave a proper tip. In fairness, it was all the change we had, but apologies to Armadillo staff.

The Disney Showcase was the final one of the weekend. Real Steel was first up, with director Shawn Levy on stage to talk about the film. He also gave away tickets to the premiere, but asked the most difficult question ever. Needless to say, I did not know the answer. Two clips were then screened; the film looks like fairly standard family fare. Andrew Stanton then introduced John Carter and footage from the film was screened. Finally, Steven Spielberg (by video) introduced some footage of his upcoming film War Horse. What struck me more than anything was that Spielberg seems to have some hand in directing or producing many of the films discussed this weekend. He may have even a hand producing this post. Human star of the film Jeremy Irvine then came on stage to discuss making War Horse.

After hanging out in the press room for a bit (Jeremy Irvine was being interviewed there, talent-spotters!), it was time for The Muppets! Director of The Muppets James Bobin and star Kermit the Frog were interviewed live via satelite. I was told that the Muppets were originally meant to appear in person. Maybe it is just as well this did not happen, as I may have got kicked out for running up on stage and hugging Kermit. The interview was a lot of fun, and the clip screened involved Kermit singing a song. It almost brought a tear to the eye…

After all that excitement, it was time for the Conan the Barbarian premiere. Jason Momoa was present to introduce the film, shown at the biggest screen at the O2 Cineworld. The film was pretty disappointing itself (review to follow).

After the very last visit to the press room, I went to the secret screening. Cineworld tried to rob me blind with their popcorn prices, after which I settled down to watch the film. Before it started, I asked the gentleman next to me if he knew what the film was (I did by this point). When he answered “Cowboys and Aliens” I was perplexed, and thought he was joking until he showed me his ticket. I was in the wrong screen. After cursing my stupidity, I ran next door and luckily the trailers were still on. I then settled down to watch The Debt, a very good thriller (review to follow). And that concluded Empire Big Screen; the film was good way to end a busy but exciting weekend.

Many thanks to Empire and Romley Davies for having me, plus all the lovely people who made the weekend so much fun (you know who you are!).