The H-Bomb: In 1966, Mossad agents Rachel (Jessica Chastain), David (Sam Worthington), and Stephan (Marton Csokas), are sent into East Berlin to track down and apprehend Dr. Bernhardt (Jesper Christensen), a Nazi war criminal known as the “Surgeon of Birkenau”. Their mission goes awry when the dear doctor ends up dead after an escape attempt, but nevertheless, the three young agents return to Israel as national heroes.
Cut to 1997, a now middle age Rachel (Helen Mirren) dons a nasty scar on her cheek and a dark secret. It’s a secret shared by her two comrades, a wheelchair bound Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) and David (Ciaran Hinds), who left Israel not long after the events of ’66. It’s a secret, that if revealed, would have a devastating effect on their lives, the lives of their families, and that would completely destroy their hero status. It’s a secret they’re willing to kill for in order to protect.
“The Debt”, for me, was a pleasant surprise in that it is a much better film than I anticipated. It’s certainly better than the reviews led me to believe. It is pretty slow going in the beginning, for roughly the first twenty minutes or so, which is not the best way for any film to start out, but once the Israelis nab their target, the film really gets rolling and, just as I thought it lost me for good, suddenly becomes an utterly engrossing watch.
It’s definitely at its strongest during the extended 1966 flashback, while the agents have to keep Bernhardt captive in their ratty looking flat. Their routine is simply to feed him and let him use the bathroom occasionally. The rest of the time they’re simply supposed to leave him bound and gagged and pretend he isn’t there. Don’t talk to him. Don’t listen to him. Sounds easy enough, but as the days wear on, they grow more and more susceptible to his taunts, and all three of them, especially the inexperienced Rachel, start to slowly unravel emotionally and psychologically, especially when their avenues of escape start closing.
Watching the characters buckle under the pressure of their mission, the difficulty of which they gravely underestimated, along with their prisoner’s constant attempts to mind fuck them, really put a tight grip on me, and brought some much needed intensity to the proceedings, after the first quarter or so left me cold and not all that interested. I credit much of this to John Madden’s taut direction, the claustrophobic setting, and the exceptional performances. I must give special kudos to Chastain, who I recently praised in “The Tree of Life”, for portraying Rachel as an earnest young woman who is strong and deeply committed to her country, but who is also very vulnerable, not just to the menacing doctor, but to the affections of her two male colleagues.
Christensen, best known as the dastardly bastard Mr. White from “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”, also deserves my praises for making his evil fucking Nazi slimebag even more bone chilling than I could have thought. Even when he’s all tied up, he still comes across as menacing, conniving, and at times, completely in control.
What ultimately drives the film, and what overall makes it work so well, is the mystery at the heart of the story. The entire time we’re made to wonder, what could the horrible secret that the three of them have been living with for thirty years possibly be? The one that they’re so terrified of anyone ever finding out? At first I thought it might be that they grabbed the wrong man. But once they have Herr Doktor, and he finally opens his mouth, it’s obvious that they do in fact have the right man. So what then, could it be? It was a secret that certainly kept me guessing right up until it was revealed, and being that I pride myself in being able to predict story twists, I was pleased that the revelation was different from what I was speculating.
If there’s anything I would fault “The Debt” for, other than its clunky beginning, is that the contemporary scenes (contemporary, again, being 1997) just aren’t as compelling as those set in ’66, despite the best efforts of Mirren (who is excellent) and Wilkinson. Also, the climax was a tad drawn out and had me thinking “Oh, come on!” at least a couple of times.
But bitching aside, “The Debt” is a tense, sharp-as-a-tack thriller that reminded me of Spielberg’s “Munich” in a number of ways, though it didn’t quite rise to the level of that superb film. It probably won’t make much of a splash in the upcoming awards season, but being that we’re in that miserable late summer period when multiplexes resemble dusty, deserted wastelands, when it seems like absolutely, positively “nothing good” is coming out, “The Debt” is one film that I can confidently recommend you go check out.
