Secondhand Reviews: "The Debt"

Rated R for violence and strong language.

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We've seen our share of remakes of foreign language films from Hollywood in recent years. Sometimes they've worked against all odds, as in "Let Me In". Most of the times you're left to wonder "What were they thinking?" In "The Debt" we have an English-language version of an Israeli film from a few years back (the original unseen by me) with the basic story not "westernized" or "Americanized", just the language. Not having seen the original, I can't comment on how the new version reflects it, only on this specific film as a movie until itself. And what we have here is, I think, an admirable and quite suspenseful effort in the espionage genre, even if it isn't without some significant faults.

This is the story of a team of three Israeli Mossad agents who, some 30-plus years ago, track down a notorious Nazi concentration camp doctor, but in spite of their best efforts he escapes. Deciding that news of their mission's failure could be disastrous for national security (and their own reputations, perhaps?) they put forth the false story that they killed him as he tried to escape and buried him. Things go as planned for many years, but some 30 years later it's revealed that he may have been discovered, still living, nearby... and "needs" to be killed ASAP so that their cover story can be maintained (can't afford to let news of his still being alive get out, you know). But all the members of the team are much older now, and not as strong as they used to be...

It's entirely possible that this film is a pale shadow of the original version and I would be embarassed by this remake if I could see the Israeli film. But I kind of doubt it. "The Debt" is a well written & directed piece of suspense and action, with an ominous atmosphere hovering over each scene... you know SOMETHING disastrous is going to happen, but you don't know how or when. There are also some marvelously creative ways of taking the story from the past to the present and back again, without ever getting us confused about what time frame we're in during any given scene. The cast has been chosen well and carefully so that there's no difficulty believing that, for instance, Jessica Chastain eventually "becomes" Helen Mirren. And the audience is so effectively put inside the heads and situations of the story's characters that you feel their trepidation and doubts at all times, almost feeling like you're living the same perilous situations they are.

I also admire the fact that this is a movie that works on more than one level. It's a very entertaining espionage story, but at the same time it asks some interesting questions that the audience can ponder. For instance, how important is a feeling of being safe and secure versus knowing that a dangerous criminal (dare we say terrorist) is still at large versus safely dead and buried? Is lying about that situation justified to protect the public's SENSE of security, even if what they believe is not the truth? Is protecting your own reputation more important than any other cause? And when the lies of your past come back to almost literally bite you, do you keep trying to cover them up or finally admit the truth? This is an exciting thriller, but it's also a very thoughtful one.

But as I said earlier, it isn't quite a PERFECT thriller. Helen Mirren's accent is respectable enough, but as brilliant an actor as Tom Wilkinson usually is, he's not exactly on Meryl Streep's level accent-wise here, and the one he uses seems just a bit off (I still buy him as the older version of that character, but I wish he hadn't tried that accent). Also, it seems a shame to have such fine actors as Mirren and Wilkinson and then devote so much of the movie to the story that happened 30 years earlier. I don't think Mirren and company could have been in more than a total of maybe 25 percent of the film. (I'm not complaining about the actors who played the younger versions, mind you... especially not Jessica Chastain... but still). And most of all, I really didn't see the need for the romantic subplot between Rachel (Chastain/Mirren) and her fellow team member Marton (she's SUPPOSED to be in a relationship with Stephan, who "grows up" to be Wilkinson). It adds nothing to the story, and the way it's portrayed with the same ominous music and sense of danger makes it seem like it's on the same level of importance as capturing the Nazi, when it's not even close and even a little insulting to imply that it is.

But with all of that, I came away from "The Debt" glad I went to see it. It's surprising in many ways, tense and frightening when it should be, and full of food for thought. It also features one of the great personifications of pure, absolute evil with Jesper Christensen as the Nazi doctor. The way he plays with his captors minds and tries to work them against each other, making them doubt themselves and their mission, is reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter, except that Christensen has none of the "cuteness" and likability that Anthony Hopkins gave to his killer... this man is simply evil in human form. That plus the aforementioned positives makes "The Debt" a very effective thriller.