The Debt (2011)

I was interested in seeing this Hollywood version as I enjoyed the Israeli film that is the source material. As for the source material: The story is an interesting one, involving both personal and national pride, and filmed and paced so matter of factly - almost like a play (which occured to me at one point - you could put this on the boards and it would work quite well), that for long periods you'd swear you were witnessing it firsthand.

The clumsiness of the entire affair is so very natural, which I'm guessing will be removed in the Hollywood version - whether that's a plus or minus remains to be seen.

I'm very intrigued to see how this is handled in Hollywood - for in the right hands you could take the bare bones of the Israeli film and ramp up the tension even further (with better pacing, etc.) **** (on to a review of the 2011 film) ******

Having seen the 2007 source film, I was anxious to see what Hollywood would do with this; and I have to say they stayed pretty close to the source material, both in tone and content, and strayed only to fill out scenes that actually added to the tension (while losing a bit of the claustrophobic feeling of the 3 agents locked inside a dank East Berlin flat).

Helen Mirren is the big name here - and really, she doesn't do much, as so much of the story is a flashback involving her younger self, portrayed well by Jessica Chastain (who seems to be in just about everything in the last two years). Other "oldsters" include Cairan Hinds (who really amounts to nothing more than a cameo) and Tom Wilkinson. Both Mirren and Hinds (in fact just about everyone in the cast) adopt this Jewish accent - which occasionally falls by the wayside.

The story, is a compelling one - Chastain, Sam Worthington (playing the younger Hinds), and Marton Czokas (the young Wilkinson) are sent to East Berlin in 1966, as it is believed that Holocaust butcher Doktor Bernhardt (in a wonderfully studied, and yet kinda creepy performance by Jesper Christenson) is working there as a GYN. The trio hatch an elaborate plan to capture and then transport Bernhardt from Russian controlled East Berlin (before the walls came down), to Israel to stand trial for crimes against humanity (specifically against Jews).

A tight thriller ensues as the trio makes the kidnapping, but then in a rather cool scene that is NOT in the source film, they are unable to make the connection to get their prize out of Russian territory. What ensues is a waiting game that wears on all three, while all the while the Doktor observes and begins to pit one against the other.

As with the source film, if the film would have stopped with the trios' return to Isreal, you would have had a truly fine film - but both films decided to invest in the "debt" part of the calculation, leading in the first film to some almost laughable hide and seek, and in the 2nd to a distasteful bit of 70 and 80 year olds fighting for what's left of their lives. Then, to make matters worse, the Hollywood version throws in a bogus tag ending necessary only as some moral high ground, do the right thing, universe that plays totally false to the rest of the film.

In conclusion, not a bad film - in fact the first half is quite good - but the last bit and some questionable rewriting by the Hollywood factory, make this fair watching, but not a gem.