I perceived The Debt as one of the most ridiculously hyped films I have ever seen. Its trailer played before almost every film I saw over the summer, whether or not it was appropriate (like playing before a comedy or a horror. What the hell, Hollywood?). Initially, I was very, very excited to see a movie that jumps through time, stars Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson, and has gorgeous semi-newcomer Jessica Chastain play the young version of Helen Mirren's character, Rachel. Hell, even the threat of Sam Worthington was not enough to dissuade me from wanting to see the film.
Then I saw the trailer again...
and again...
and again...
Each time I viewed it, I started to worry a little bit more. "Why are they pimping this movie so much? Is it because it's going to be the first award-worthy film, kicking off the fall season a little early?...No...they don't do that until September or even October...Shit...this comes out in August...that's like the graveyard shift for movies...."
Then: "Why the hell have I not seen a single trailer for this on TV? I know I don't watch too much television, but surely someone else has heard of this....No...nobody seems to know of this film. Shit."
...and then I watched the movie.
On to the review!
The Debt is an action/murder/mystery/drama starring the aforementioned Miss Mirren and Mr.'s Wilkinson and, to a lesser extent, Worthington. Mirren and Chastain play Rachel, Worthington and Ciaran Hinds play young and old David, respectively, and Wilkinson and Marton Csokas play the old and young Stephan. I deliberately wrote that confusingly to give you a feel for the first twenty minutes of this film. While your mind tries to get everyone right with their future/past selves, you get to miss chunks of dialog and, supposedly, plot. The first misstep of the movie: confusing an audience. Great for a murder mystery, not great for an amalgamation of several movies that ends less with a bang and more with a weird splat.
Ostensibly, Rachel, David and Stephan are Israeli special agents who have infiltrated East Berlin to find and kidnap a former Nazi, returning him to Israel so that he can be tried for war crimes. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and shit hits the fan. One part of the movie has this great idea of replaying an event more than once, changing the story a bit as the truth comes out. Unfortunately, they do that by first showing you a ten minute scene, and then later showing you the exact same eight minutes of the same footage, followed by something different. For a film that comes in under two hours, it is inexcusable to re-use footage. Seriously, The Debt? You couldn't have at least shot it from a different angle or something? ESPECIALLY when the footage is half-boring and half-ridiculous?
Other offenses include: Not being mysterious, not being interesting, letting Sam Worthington try acting, having a cheesy, ham-fisted ending when the movie could have ended on such a better, more interesting note ( if you had just cut the camera off ten minutes earlier), and fooling me into thinking this was going to be a good, thought-provoking film on how special agents do their country's dirty work while trying to handle their own grief, a la Munich.
You sons of bitches, you fooled me into looking forward to another Munich!
So yeah, don't worry about seeing this one in theaters. Don't worry about seeing it in red box, either, unless you have a thing for seeing Helen Mirren in a nightgown. If you do...don't ever tell me about it.
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