Review: The Debt

John Madden’s The Debt is a well acted, interesting thriller that collapses under the weight of its manufactured storytelling format. The movie zooms back and forth in time to create the illusion of importance–a Miramax leftover, it goes without saying that Oscars were originally on the producers’ minds–but this structure ultimately robs it of its viscerally effective action core.

When the movie opens, it is 1997. Three former Mossad agents–Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren), Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson), and David Peretz (Ciarán Hinds)–are being celebrated as the subjects of a book by Rachel’s daughter. Thirty years earlier, they apprehended and killed a Nazi war criminal.

But did they really? Clearly, something about the trio’s legend is amiss. Overwhelmed by apparent guilt, David kills himself by walking in front of a bus.

Cut to 1966, where we see what really happened. Rachel (Jessica Chastain), Stephan (Martin Csokas), and David (Sam Worthington) keep a low profile in East Berlin, where the heinous “Surgeon of Birkenau” (Jesper Christensen)–obviously modeled after Dr. Mengele–lives under the cover of Doktor Bernhardt, practicing as a gynecologist. Their mission: kidnap him and smuggle him out of the country (no small task given the heavily controlled borders) so he can be tried in Israel.

The trio’s plot to capture the Surgeon is the stuff of a great action flick. It may be formulaic, but it’s supremely well done — director Madden paces the high-stakes situations with expertise and the actors make their characters equally skilled and sympathetic. The scenes between Chastain and Christensen–the only way Rachel can get to the Butcher without seeming suspect is as a patient–are as tension-filled as any in recent memory. (If you had any doubt that Chastain is the next big star after seeing Tree of Life and The Help, you won’t after seeing The Debt.)

Despite 1966 passages that hit all the right edge-of-your-seat notes, The Debt comes across as calculated and heavy-handed because it insists on being a nonlinear thriller. Madden and the screenwriters (adapting from an Israeli film) make the audience engage in an unnecessary guessing-game for most of the 114-minute duration, deliberately deceiving the audience on one occasion. This is all for not: with enough pulse-pounding 1966 material to fill up a straightforward action-drama, why throw in the empty baggage of 1997? It would be one thing if the great Mirren, Wilkinson, and Hinds had been endowed with roles that they could sink their teeth into, but they exist only as pawns to give the proceedings the pretense of the dramatic weight of elapsed time. That, and shoving their names onto the one-sheet meant more potential Oscar nominations.

Lofty as its aspirations may have been, The Debt is just as convoluted as a supermarket paperback. The second act boasts more rousing scenes than most entire films have this summer, but whether it’s worth enduring the sloppy first and third is debatable.

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The Debt (2011, USA). Produced by Mairi Bett, Eitan Evan, Ildiko Kemeny, Gadi Levy, Taquin Pack, Eduardo Rossoff, Kris Thykier, and Matthew Vaughn. Directed by John Madden. Written for the screen by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, and Peter Straughan, based on the film Ha-Hov written by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum. Starring Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciarán Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, Sam Worthington, and Jesper Christensen. Distributed by Focus Features. Rated R, with a running time of 114 minutes.