The Debt

If this movie had been made a few years later, Jessica Chastain would have visited Prague sooner than she managed to with the movie Zookeeper’s Wife. I’m sure of that. You see you can feel Prague’s good old architecture from this film, which is also quite similar in Budapest. That’s why they use Budapest to shoot East Berlin every now and then. Nevertheless, I watched this movie mainly because of Jessica, who once again put in an incredible acting performance. It was a bit worse with the story that tries to look very interesting, spy-like and fateful, but it’s actually about one botched operation and the related lie. Nothing too big, nothing too complicated. The atmosphere is definitely good, but you sort of suspect all the time how things will eventually turn out and you have no reason to yearn for the ending from the very start, which is a pity for a movie like this. (17.04.2017)

(This review contains SPOILERS.) Vagina dentata. Those who know a woman’s secret (rosebud) will not be able to get over it. Whereas the men are punished for their weakness for the opposite sex, the woman is tormented because she failed to shoot her nemesis with a phallic weapon (based on the information as it is conveyed to us, Vogel knows the most about her). She has thus wrongly enjoyed the benefits of the “masculine” world for thirty years; her legitimacy does not apply. It’s as if the inner suffering wasn’t enough; the confrontation with her materialised subconscious (the connection is emphasised by Vogel’s appearance in Rachel's dream; he thus penetrated not only her body, but also her mind) has cost her her beauty. For the rest of her life, she will have a face disfigured by a conspicuous scar. This is probably only one of the reasons that she spends years with Stefan, whom she obviously does not love. Another thing that keeps them together is a shared lie – as spouses, they can easily ensure that the other will not divulge what the public should not hear. Their life together is thus based on distrust. The elimination of men, or rather their manhood (Stefan is paralysed “only” from the waist down), represents the real objective of the vengeful mission of the film’s main character, Rachel, a woman driven by her own frustration: She has to deny her true identity, reveal her genitals to a sadistic doctor, face aggressive assaults from a man who has always loved his country more than her… Like in a slasher movie, she ultimately becomes the “final girl”, which she is destined to become as the only strong character from the beginning. Vogel is reminiscent of a horror-movie monster, Stefan doesn’t stand out with many positive qualities and David plays a submissive role in the love triangle from the beginning (in the fights, he’s a bit actor playing the victim who ends up on the ground; he even cooks). ___ I realise that a more thorough viewing (I’ve seen the film only once so far) would reveal the variability of the opinions present here, as well as the fact that this is not a model film for the chosen type of interpretation. At the same time, it allows such an interpretation, which is mainly what I intended to point out with this “alternative” review. And otherwise, The Debt is a thriller that works superbly with the characters’ motivations (I like Jessica Chastain all the more) and the atmosphere (classic submarine), but it works better in the first half and rather in individual scenes (the train) than in the second half and especially in the ending, when the contradictory nature of its dramatic structure becomes apparent (the film suddenly solves a different problem) along with the gratuitousness of the initially delightfully bold narrative low blows. 75% (23.10.2011)

Half of the film is a fascinating trip to the heart of darkness and half is the mechanical sweeping of the dry mud of history under a neat genre carpet. There’s something to Matty's interpretation; perhaps I would just add that the chemistry of the Mossad and Vogel agents is extremely functional and has spark. Unfortunately, only as long as they're all young. In 1997, all that remains of all this magic is a persistent and schematic thriller with an inadvertently comic ending that blocks out the beautiful vibration of East Berlin. In any case, madden killed Vogel through the scenes of "gynecological" interrogation and abduction that were over the line, not only by his standards, but also by genre standards. I've never seen more luxurious old school... well, since Munich. [70%] (28.10.2011)

Very respectable, both as a psychological drama and as a suspenseful thriller. However, it would have been better to focus more on one or the other. The Debt could have then found a more distinctive place in cinema alongside, for example, the dramatic Munich or the thriller Valkyrie, next to which it is more likely to gather dust as it is. John Madden tries at all costs to engage American viewers while intellectually fulfilling Europeans and narrowly misses the mark. Ignore the ending, which is utterly inappropriate and calls my four-star rating into question. (01.11.2011)

The Debt had its sights set high with its theme and cast but the ambitious script tries to do too many things at once. The genre fusion of a love story with a psychological drama would be fine, but grafting an action thriller onto it was a mistake. I understand the producers' concern that the film should not be too intimate in its nature because adventurous elements simply sell, but at the same time they detract from its credibility and power. The most impressive aspect of The Debt is where, through dialogues, it comes to a confrontation between the characters, a clash of value hierarchies, and strength of will. Scandinavian Jesper Christensen portrays his war criminal as a terrifying monster, a cold-blooded psychopath who never loses his nerve for even a second and does not give up even in seemingly hopeless situations. He is demonic and brilliantly acted, just like Jessica Chastain in the role of the Mossad agent, who represents his antithesis. She is determined but also full of emotions and emotional confusion. Their chilling spark, whether in the office or in an illegal apartment after the doctor's capture, is the premature climax of the film. The film is not harmed by the shifting time frames, but rather by the aforementioned attempt to move the drama into a more appealing genre. The final quarter hour, when there is a final settling of accounts in Ukraine, kills the film's high potential because it pushes it to the brink of absurdity. It could have been a five-star affair, but after the final showdown between the old men, I can only give it three strong stars. Overall impression: 65%. (06.07.2017)