Review of Allied (2016) by Ray T — 10 Nov 2016

I attended the premiere last night, and I greatly enjoyed this movie. This was described to me as a "romantic thriller", and it lives up to both ends of that description. It is, of course, a story about a romance, but I would also describe it as romantic in its visuals and sounds.

During the post movie Q&A, the director mentioned that the film was meant to be evocative of the glamorous style of old Hollywood films. I felt that it struck the right balance of the airy sophistication of older films while retaining the visceral realism - in content and in deft application of CGI and modern sound capabilities - of today's films.

The screen writing and the acting really sell the thriller aspect of this, and while I figured out few of the climatic reveals about halfway through the movie, I felt that the tension about the loyalties of Cotillard's character were well-matched with the perceptions of Pitt's character.

The tension his character feels ebbs and flows, making the thriller aspect of this movie neither boring nor tiring. I'm usually ambivalent about reading spoilers about a movie before I see it, but I would say that this movie is probably more enjoyable the less one knows in advance.

Also, while I would have enjoyed this movie on my TV (HD, but nothing fancy), I think this would be worth seeing in the theater to get the full effect of the visuals, sounds, and music score.