Review of Allied (2016) by Victor T — 19 Feb 2017

Robert Zemeckis is known for being a man that tries to push the boundaries of CGI, a screenwriter that loves simplicity and audience pleasing sentimentality. While a couple of times he has tried to be more dramatic ("Cast Away", "The Walk", "Contact" and "Flight") most of the time he is still is sappy. Is this a solid and more mature film from Zemeckis?

In the latter half of WWII Max is a Canadian spy who is tasked to kill an important German ambassador. In order to achieve his objective, he is paired with Marianne, a French spy, in order to act as a married couple, but as time goes on both of them may like the idea of being a couple.

I have always considered Zemeckis to be a Spielberg apprentice or wannabe, so I'm quite surprised that it took him decades to make a WWII film, a ground where Spielberg is quite successful, but sadly Zemeckis is unable to give a solid film set in that period. "Allied" counts with a dysfunctional couple of protagonists, as Marion Cotillard gives her all in her performance while Brad Pitt gives one of his worst performances yet, a story that tries to be everything at once thus failing spectacularly (from "Mr & Mrs Smith" to "Sleeping with the Enemy" and even tries to be "Casablanca"), Zemeckis' direction feels uninspired, the script is mediocre, and overall it is quite boring. The only positive is that the production design is beautiful.

"Allied" is a tedious, boring and slow film that fails at being a wartime romance due to its by the numbers script, it's unbelievable romance and Brad Pitt's acting.