In his 30-plus year career, writer/director Robert Zemeckis
has successfully dipped his toes into the waters of nearly every genre of film;
drama, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, the Old West…all of which have served as his
playgrounds to tell stories. With ALLIED, he finally enters the war-time genre.
Specifically, WWII.
In 1942, Canadian Intelligence Officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt)
and French Resistance fighter Marianne (Marion Cotillard), are sent to
Casablanca to pose as husband and wife and assassinate the German ambassador.
The two grow close and eventually marry having a child, before Max is informed
by his superiors that Marianne may actually be a German spy.
Far from the typical war-time film, ALLIED is a tricky
espionage story with a touch of romance. The bulk of the story concerns Max
reluctantly having to obey orders to discover if his wife has been feeding the
enemy information, making for a fine duty vs. family dilemma for him to wrestle
with. Robert Zemeckis guides the story with a patient and steady hand, putting
his characters through many “tests” to determine if they are who they say they
are. It’s a well-constructed guessing game for Max and the audience.
Character is the most important thing when dealing with the
high-stakes backdrop of war-time spies. Zemeckis keeps his two leads, Max and
Marianne, at an arm’s-length. They’re treated more like chess-pieces than
actual characters, as not much is told regarding where they came from or what
they’re all about. This is effective for Marianne as she’s supposed to be
shrouded in mystery, but for Max it leaves the film feeling cold. Max is
supposed to be going through a serious moral dilemma, but the character is
underwritten and it’s hard to feel his emotional strain…even when the explosive
finale comes around.
Zemeckis has always made excellent use out of new film
technology to tell his stories, and ALLIED is no different; the film is
absolutely gorgeous to look at, as
1940’s Casablanca is recreated in stunning detail. On the set, the production design
is stunning, and all actors look right at home in their swanky leisure suits
and snappy military uniforms. There is an odd choice of using CGI to de-age
Brad Pitt, which takes some getting used to (they ironed out his wrinkles), but
the rest of the visual effects are seamless. The tension-building scenes are
brilliantly done, and overall Zemeckis films ALLIED with a touch of the style
from the Golden Age of Hollywood, giving it a very old-fashioned and familiar
feel. Alan Silvestri’s score sounds fine but feels underused.
Acting is pretty good. Brad Pitt shows the strain of his
situation very well but he’s hampered with too few script pages to really let
his character soar. Marion Cotillard lights up the screen and manages to go
dark with a single glance, and she has good chemistry with Pitt. The rest of
the cast, including Jared Harris, Lizzy Caplan, and Matthew Goode are all fine.
The plotting and writing for ALLIED is tight and clean, and
there are zero issues with story or character consistency. It’s probably
written a little too tight, as the lack of development for the Max character
leaves the film feeling too business-like when it should have had a lot more
heart. ALLIED is a beautiful-looking movie with some wonderful moments, and is
strong enough to earn a recommendation; it’s just a few pages short of
greatness.
BOTTOM LINE: See it
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