East Berlin. 1966. A trio of young Mossad agents is dispatched into Soviet territory to capture and extract Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen, best known to international audience as Mr. White from the Daniel Craig Bond films). Vogel is an infamous Nazi surgeon who performed horrific experiments on the inmates of Birkenau. The agents, idealistic David (Sam Worthington) and ambitious Stefan (Marton Csokas), are both immediately taken with Rachel (Jessica Chastain), newly arriving in Berlin to infiltrate Vogel’s gynecology office.
Cut to Israel, 1997, the three are celebrated heroes for Vogel’s capture when David (now played by Ciarán Hinds), returns to the country after 30 years of traveling the world with new information that may upset their status. Stefan (Tom Wilkinson), now confined to a wheelchair and Rachel (Helen Mirren) must now take decisive action to prevent news from spreading – but what if the cost of keeping the lie alive is too much to handle for the aging former agents?
John Madden’s The Debt (adapted from a 2007 Israeli film of the same name by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan) opens with great promise and acute tension, then devolves into Munich’s little brother, eschewing moral ambiguity for cheap thrills in a high-stakes third act. The first hour, starting off slow in Israel and then jumping to Berlin for an excellent second act, The Debt works best when confined to an apartment the agents first share, David and Stefan competing for Rachel’s attention, and then use as a makeshift prison cell for Vogel.
Christensen, awarded with the meatiest role, owns the best scenes in the film, which involve the former Nazi boogeyman playing into his myth, especially against the fragile David, who has apparently lost his entire family in the Holocaust and has an itch for bringing for Vogel to justice. These scenes, involving the doctor, tied up but triumphant in his depictions of cowardly Jews consumed with self-preservation, stick out in a film that is otherwise very grounded in the obvious – why did so many perish? What is justice? When and how should aggression against the enemy be exercised? David says time and again that the agents (obviously standing in for the people of Israel and definitely impacting public opinion should they succeed or fail in the mission) are not animals, and must rise above. The simple solution would be putting hot lead into Vogel’s brain point-blank and going home, but instead to risk life and limb bringing him to a court seems right – but then as Vogel, a death sentence is a death sentence, why parade this man for the world before you condemn him all the same?
This author certainly doesn’t have answers to these questions, but the film left me thinking and that’s promising, despite a third act that fully qualifies the agents, in particular Mirren’s steadfast, steely-eyed Rachel. Moral ambiguity is much closer to real life, and yet The Debt can’t seem to reconcile the thriller that it wants to be with the questions it raises almost in passing. The performances are solid across the board, Worthington in particular standing out and reminding audiences that he is not only capable of acting but emoting. Chastain, wrapping up a banner year, is without any doubt on her way to major accolades in the future, considering that Rachel, not exactly well-developed, is given graceful and alluring femininity and realistic toughness by this extremely talented actress. Csokas fits in well as opportunist Stefan but he’s not asked to stretch his acting muscles much. The older trio are all accomplished actors and it goes without saying they get their job done – the 1990s scenes are a mite less compelling than the 1960s espionage, but that’s to be expected. Overall, The Debt deserves a strong recommendation – it’s a capable, even occasionally breathtaking thriller and suffers mostly from poor plotting. That shouldn’t make the discussions it’s bound to raise any less rewarding.
"The Debt" opens August 31, 2011 and is rated R. Dance, Romance, Thriller. Directed by John Madden. Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, Peter Straughan. Starring Ciaran Hinds, Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson, Marton Csokas , Jesper Christensen .
