Movie Review: The Debt (2011) - Page 2

Enter Rachel the red head and the two men are smitten, its love at first fight. We watch the trio train, throw punches and each other inside their tiny leaky apartment waiting for the "green light" to begin a super-secret mission to capture Dr. Vogel and bring him to Israel to stand trial. In the meantime David dances with the devil. But David is especially vulnerable when discussions veer into tender territory that pushes this tough guy to a breaking point that eventually unravels the mission; thereby creating "the debt." I left this film thinking. "Damn, that was a good movie."

Fits and starts mark the first hours of the agents' mission and it has a messy ending to boot. I wouldn’t erase or change a word of the screenplay because as written and directed it yields a taut, adrenaline pumping matrix. Since the story is fiction we know that some embellishment went on and that the trio did not return to a hero's welcome in Israel as the film pretends. On the other hand--hats off to director John Madden for making not the best Jewish film of the year but one of the best films of the year using flashbacks and flash-forwards that are seamless yet provocative--drawing the viewer in and onto the edge of their seat. These agents are given a license to thrill as well as kill boredom.The Debt is more than a thriller because the audience gets an emotional stake in the outcome with close-ups and intimate moments between the three agents and their war criminal that amount to great story telling. John Madden has a long-awaited 104-minute hit on his hands and one that I applaud and would watch again and again. I give it 4-1/2 stars.

Article Author: Heloise

Author, writer, teacher, blogger, keeps a blog The Trough where she writes. She combines spirituality and politics as no other. She is a native of Chicago, who prefers walking as exercise. The author has a B.S., biology and M.A., anthropology, certified science and french teacher.
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