Review of film: “THE DEBT”

2011, 08-30:

Review of film:  “THE DEBT”

This espionage-based ACTION / THRILLER starts off in 1997 with our introduction to  three senior citizens living in ISRAEL... 

...  Sarah Gold (RAMI ABOULAFIA) has proudly written a book about the exploits of her mother, Rachel Singer (HELEN MIRREN), who was an AGENT in Israel’s Mossad secret service...

...  Helen had worked with two other agents, her now-husband Stephan Gold (TOM WILKINSON) and David Peretz (CIARÁN HINDS), on a mission to kidnap an infamous NAZI doctor, Dieter Vogel (JESPER CHRISTENSEN), & bring him back to TRIAL in Israel for committing unspeakable medical experiments on people...

...  But, when Ciarán is picked-up for a planned meeting with his compatriots before the formal book-release party, he appears to commit SUICIDE...

...  That brings us to enter the world of flashbacks, in the form of meeting the 3 agents when they were YOUNGER & in Berlin planning the kidnap of Jesper thirty years before, in 1966...

...  Young Stephan (played by MARTON CZOKAS) is in-effect the boss of the mission...                            

...  He’s always trying to “get” with young Rachel (JESSICA CHASTAIN), tho quiet detached young David (SAM WORTHINGTON) seems to also be silently interested in her from “afar”...

...  They work to practice their martial tactics & to hone their plans re HOW they’ll kidnap Jesper, who at this time is working in communist East Berlin disguised as a Doktor Bernhardt...

...  The plan is for Jessica to pretend to be married to David & to go to the Doktor to supposedly get help with a fertility problem...  Knowing his past crimes, she finds it very DIFFICULT to “deal” with him, especially on such an “intimate” level...

...  Overall, the idea is to incapacitate the Doktor & get him to an above-ground Rapid Transit train from free West Berlin that chances to run for a short portion in EAST Berlin behind the Berlin Wall (in an area which is patrolled by EAST German guards)... 

...  They want to cut thru the fence to get to the train & use that to “spirit” the Doktor to an airfield in West Berlin that’d allow him to be secretly taken directly to ISRAEL for TRIAL concerning his Nazi-era crimes...

...  Periodically, the time-period flashes back & forth between the 2 main periods of the movie--  the original SECRET MISSION (in 1966) & the “aftermath” (in 1997) wherein Helen is at “loggerheads” with her wheelchair-bound Secret Agent husband over what really “HAPPENED” to CIARÁN (who’d “disappeared” shortly after their return to Israel after the Mission)...    

...  How had the original “kidnap” plans GONE in 1966?...  What SECRETS will we learn about the relationships between the 3 agents & what really HAPPENED during the Mission?...

...  What special efforts will HELEN go to in order to try to “FIX” some of the covered-up PROBLEMS that had occurred 30+ years ago during the Mission & their return to Israel as “heroes”?...

...  There’s a great deal of tension built-up as we discover what REALLY TOOK PLACE during the original Assignment & their homecoming...

...  A wonderful level of taut SUSPENSE is created as the true story is “peeled back” bit-by-bit before our eyes... 

...  There are excellent performances by all the major stars, especially Helen & Jessica (whose roles allow them to be more outwardly “emotional” in their characterizations)...

...  For the SUCCESSFUL way the intriguing story is unfolded, I’m rating this at 8.25 out of 10 stars...

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