RETURN OF THE CLASSICS IN "THE DEBT"

Well, I guess the news was going to hit the airwaves at some point, there is a boyfriend in my life as of quite recently (haha that got you didn’t it baby?). And the reason I mention him in this particular post is that this film is mainly his discovery. (I mean, of course he’s into movies, could you imagine it being otherwise? J ) Anyhow, we watched this together the other night, and it was so absolutely riveting that I had to share it with you. I mean, put your hands on your hearts, everyone likes a good thriller. Especially a spy thriller.

The story is that of three Mossad agents that went to East Berlin in 1965. Their mission is a dangerous one, to capture and bring to justice one of the most notorious Nazi villains in history. The mission is carried out and goes down in history with its success, the three agents taking their places amongst the most famous Israelis in history. However, the glamour and success they live with conceals secrets. The secrets are both personal and professional and have given a bitter edge to their fame and fortune, unbeknown to all but the three of them. And as we all know by now, the past has this annoying habit of not staying buried. 30 year later, someone needs to go back undercover to salvage not only their reputations, but their very lives...

I know, we are all somewhat divided about spy films in the first place. And at first glance, the film seems to pack a few too many clichés into one film. Spies during the Cold War with Second World War overtones thrown in, combined with the “Jews vs the Nazis” paradigm AND a love triangle (this is not really a spoiler, it is pretty self-evident from the moment we see the main protagonists, one woman and two men). Not to mention the “secret from the past that doesn’t remain buried” thing. I mean wow. I would really understand if you took one look at the synopsis and ran for lack of original content alone. But hear me out, because despite all this, the film has a lot, and I do mean a lot, going for it.

Think about it, clichés are actually clichés for a reason, it was  because they have been “done” way too often. And the reason they were done often is, presumably, because at one point, before we decided that it was cheesy and “uncool”, it (whatever it may be) was considered cool. And popular.  This means that there is something we would potentially enjoy a lot in any of “it”, provided it is done well. The same goes for anything with multiple “cheesy” factors in it – as long as they are all done well, there is nothing really wrong with it. And this film does do a sterling job of everything. First of all, and perhaps most importantly the acting is absolutely superb. The cast numbers names such as Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson and Sam Worthington. The director, John Madden, uses every classic spy-film trick in the book to keep us on the edges of our seats from the word go. The main action is psychological, which is also good, it doesn’t really rely that much on flashy fights and special effects like some films of the genre do (James Bond is a spy as well technically, don’t forget). So I mean, yeah, the film can be considered a tad old fashioned in some ways. But just because a way you do something is old, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is wrong. Take a good, old fashioned Martini for example... But maybe that’s the topic of another post all together...