Day 251: The Debt (2011), Final "Cool Off With The Classics," and Juxtaposition Blog-A-Thon

R, 1 hr. 44 min.  Directed by: John Madden.  Release Date: August 31, 2011.

If you've been reading me for longer than a few weeks, you'll probably know that I have this fantasy where I find out Helen Mirren is my new, long-lost great aunt who takes a fancy to me and we go hang out somewhere.  I have similar fantasies about Paula Deen, but those usually end with my death from obstructed arteries and heart failure before I turn 45.  So, when I say I went to see this primarily because of Helen Mirren's presence.  I already know she can do a spycraft sort of film, thanks to her rather outstanding performance in RED, but from the trailers, I suspected this would be a slower sort of affair.  I wasn't exactly sure what "the debt" was, specifically, but I was thinking one of those British-style, "sleepy" espionage films that I sometimes struggle with (because they lean toward the dull compared with their American-made cousins).

I'm going to start with my complaints, because I only have three of them, and two are details.  The first is that Hebrew is written right to left, and in at least three different scenes where we either are certain or pretty sure the page is written in Hebrew, you can watch Helen Mirren reading left to right.  It's my language spaz thing coming to foreground again, I know, but it bothers me.  They could hire consultants to fix that.  I have a problem with the casting, as well, since I believe that Marton Csokas, who played Young Stefan, far more closely resembled Ciaran Hinds, who played David.  Sam Worthington (Young David) looked far more like Tom Wilkinson (Stefan).  I'm hoping you see my dilemma.  Somewhere, a casting decision was muddled.  I also had the problem that this was dull.  We've seen these movies about Mossad agents going after Nazis or terrorists or Santa or whomever before all this.  Having three fight scenes, one of which involves to folks in who are at least in their 70s in unacceptable.  Mossad is pretty, well, badass, and they are a credit on their teachers, but this movie tends to make them look like they're all mensches.  Ha!  I kid.  But no, really.

I thought that this was remarkably well acted.  The Sam Worthington-Jessica Chastain-Marton Csokas triangle was heady stuff, and well-handled by all, which gives me hope that Sam Worthington has some talent to bring to the table in the wake of his Avatar success.  I wish there had been more Helen Mirren, but you know, I'd feel like that if she'd been on screen for the entire run time.  I will say this won't go down as her best performance, but she's a bit like pizza that way.  I was a little worried that I'd find this a bit played out, and in some ways, there were scenes that reminded me of other espionage thrillers, and several others that reminded me of Berlin (I think that's the movie I'm thinking of where the Mossad agents spar in a crappy apartment).  

I think what happened here was this movie called to me intellectually, the arthouse snob in me, because the technical merits of the film were (mostly) on point and enjoyable.  I love that they took the time to quietly rubbed the multilingual tendencies of just about every other people on the planet in the faces of its American audience.  But, this wasn't as entertaining as it could have been.  It took itself too seriously, and failed to provide with as much action or violence as I might expect.  Only a handful of shots fired (they were HOARDING those blasted blanks) and a single knifing makes for a thriller that might be too cerebral for its own good.

I was left at the end of the movie with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction.  I'm not going to go in to details, to prevent spoilers, but I'd like some feedback from the rest of you if and when you see this.  Did this ending just flat out not work for anyone?

And, since my project has left me more or less without a way to do any administrative or record-keeping writing, I have a few "announcements" to follow:

Here's my short list for Go, See, Talk's "Cool Off With the Classics" Blog-A-Thon.

 

Notorious (1946)

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Sherlock Holmes: Prelude to a Murder / Dressed To Kill (1941)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Suspicion (1941)

I Wake Up Screaming/Hot Spot (1941)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

And Then There Were None (1945)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The Big Sleep (1946)

There's now a new entry on my Blogosphere page.  The Juxtaposition Blog-A-Thon, hosted by Pussy Goes Grrr, starts on Monday, but I'm swapping it out now.  It's a little something different, so I thought I'd write a little something different.  Hope y'all enjoy!