Released 13 years ago on the most undesirable commercial weekend of any year (Labor Day), “The Debt” was essentially left for dead by distributor Focus Features. Despite an almost total lack of promotion, advertising, and initial critical indifference, it took in over $45 million against a $20 million budget and eventually made it to the number one spot on my 2010 Top 10 list.
“The Debt” is a remake of the 2007 “Ha-Hov,” a film which was seen by few people outside of Israel where it was produced and some of it was set. Recalling many of the political-espionage thrillers of the ‘70s (“The Boys From Brazil,” “Marathon Man”), “The Debt” takes a perennial cinematic foe (Nazis), frames it within a familiar context (The Cold War) while brilliantly employing one of the most tired and threadworm of all storytelling devices (flashback).
The big problem with reviewing something such as “The Debt,” like most astutely-crafted thrillers, is getting into the nuts-and-bolts details without giving too much away. This is a movie where one of its biggest twists takes place before the opening credits have even finished and it doesn’t make complete sense until well into the third act.
Add to this are four principal characters portrayed by seven performers with an out-of-sequence narrative and you’re just asking for trouble. This is not one of those don’t-blink-or-you-might-miss-something affairs, but it’s close.
Uneasy Reunion
Three decades after they became Israeli heroes, Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren), Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) gather at a release party for a book written about them by Sarah Gold (Romi Aboulafia). We immediately get the impression all of them are there somewhat against their will, but because of their covert backgrounds, none of them are about to reveal their cards or upset the apple cart.
Way back when, all of them were members of the Mossad, the Israeli equivalent (in almost every way) of the CIA, they were called on to perform a specific, highly dangerous service for their country. From the time the mission ended through the modern day (the mid-1990s), all of them look as if they’re ready to implode and are constantly on a razor’s edge.
Cut to East Berlin in 1965 where David (Sam Worthington) and Rachel (Jessica Chastain) are pretending they’re married Argentineans while the brash Stephan (Marton Csokas) is hitting on Rachel, who is instead romantically interested in the bashful David. This is not nearly as soap opera-ish as it might read on paper.
They’ve been carefully selected to ferret out former Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), who is now living comfortably under an alias and working as an unassuming OB-GYN alongside his oblivious wife, who’s also his nurse.
‘Godfather II’ Style
Challenged with presenting a complicated narrative in an easy-to-follow but evocative manner, director John Madden (“Mrs. Brown,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Operation Mincemeat”) and his three screenwriters go the route of “The Godfather Part II.” The filmmakers opt for a back-and-forth presentation about a half dozen times while slowly doling out bits and pieces of the plot and carefully avoiding giving away anything more than what they absolutely have to.This slow, trickling, borderline-torturous method of information release results in a nail-biting affair, something true thriller fans will relish, but might actually bother and annoy some less-than patient viewers. There could also be those who interpret the final scene as somewhat ambiguous but, within the context of a revisionist historical mystery, it is gloriously satisfying. If you saw “Inglourious Basterds” you’ll have an idea of the level of delayed satisfaction.
Casting here is everything and Mr. Madden hit the trifecta. The pairings of Ms. Mirren and Ms. Chastain along with Mr. Hinds and Mr. Worthington were spot on. However, the masterstroke was with Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Csokas as Stephan.
Had Mr. Christensen not been assigned the duty of the clear antagonist, the Stephan character would have more than fit the bill. The Vogel character was clear in his big picture intentions while Stephan is a blustery, sniveling waffler.
The victims and victors in “The Debt” are often the same people at the same time and only one of them will ever feel remotely good about it.
It is walking away knowing you did the right thing, even if it means losing much of yourself, your reputation, and your child’s adulation in the process. No one emerges unscathed in this winning movie; there are only varying degrees of survivor’s guilt, shame, and ultimately, retribution.
