The Burden of Heroism

Jessica Chastain, that mesmerizing It Actress of the moment, gets in a pretty bloody fight at the beginning of John Madden’s The Debt, the remake of a 2007 Israeli movie.

It’s a good, long, thrilling while before we revisit what happens next and we learn the truth, about the fight, and about what came to be of Chastain’s Rachel, Sam Worthington’s David, and Stefan (Marton Csokas), three Mossad agents on an important and secret mission in mid-1960s East Berlin.

The actress (who’s making quite good on the buzz surrounding her Hollywood ascension, thanks to turns in The Tree of Life and The Help, and will continue to do so this fall, btw, in a couple more projects opening before year’s end) is something both fierce and vulnerable in the brutal scene and throughout the movie.

This is is due, in part, to the fact that Rachel’s the lone female in an operation that requires not only precision but a presence of mind – the agents are on a covert mission to bring a Nazi war criminal, an infamous doctor named Vogel (Jesper Christensen), to justice – that we don’t usually associate with a woman’s role in ’60s-set movies.

A housewife she ain’t: She is the key to trio’s success, and, as it turns out, a a big reason for the complications that arise in middle of what should be a cinch of an extraction. Well...as much of one as it could be in heavily guarded East Berlin.

The Debt flashes forward to 1997 Tel Aviv and back. In the ’90s, we meet older Rachel, David, and Stefan. They’re played by Helen Mirren, a broken Ciarán Hinds, and a wheelchair-bound Tom Wilkinson.

Venerated for three decades by their country, they have grown apart, torn asunder by the secret they swore to keep the night of the fight that changed the course of their operation and their lives, which were well on their way there thanks to the deflections and inevitable romantic entanglements encouraged by their task.

The pressure is on more than ever now that Rachel and Stefan’s daughter has written a book about their heroism, but the question that arises once we revisit the fight that left Rachel forever scarred is whether the trio is actually deserving of the praise.

To make matters worse, allegations out of the Ukraine threaten to cast an irreparable shadow not only on them but on Mossad as well.

The secret, one of them says, must be protected, but the cost may be much to high to pay anymore.

The suspense of The Debt builds steadily in the past, the most accomplished narrative. It’s a potboiler, and I recommend that you don’t see this movie in between manis because you run the risk of biting your nails, and then you’ll be stuck with fugly fingers for a week or so. The intensity, though, get a little diluted with the time jumps, but the payoff in the end, as implausible as it seems, is well worth the liberties the script takes. That, I believe, has lots to do with the great cast Madden has on deck – it’s a good one.

My Rating ***

Photo: Focus Features.