Review of Allied (2016) by Nelson P — 18 Dec 2016

Wartime romances are interesting subjects to film. In one hand, you're balancing the realities of human nature at its most raw and unforgiving and in the other hand, you're building a relationship amongst death and destruction; love tends to grow from tragedies and chaos but what if that love was a bit more complex and involved paranoia and a broken trust between to people and their allegiances? Well, that's where Allied gets even more interesting.

Staring superstar heart throb Brad Pitt, channeling his best Robert Redford, as Max Vatan and the ever beautiful, graceful, elegant Marion Cotillard as Marianne Beausejour, Allied tells the WWII wartime romance between both spys who fall in love, move to London, and begin a family. Pitt's Vatan, who has been recently promoted to Wing Commander, then gets an unimaginable order to investigate his wife and the nature of her possible connect to the Nazi Regime. The paranoia immediately sets in, as every move and every thought becomes more calculated than the last, as Pitt begins to unravel the mystery of who his wife really is.

Zemeckis, who is a genuine genius of a director sets up everything beautifully as he's used to making grand scale epics out of what could be small and self contained stories. Allied is no different but the scale seems off and the pacing suffers a bit. There's moments in the film that really would have benefited from quieter, more enclosed shots (showing both tension and unease) and a more in depth look at the relationship. The film isn't without its rewards, however, as the Wartime sequences are filmed lavishly and violently and while we do get a since of unevenness from Vatan's predicament, we never truly feel the cat and mouse game the film could and should be; Pitt manages to make it work with solid acting, maybe a bit stiff at times, but his work compliments the sheer star power of Cotillard as their chemistry ignites the film in places where it lags on. Cotillard is a standout performance as she rains down the mystery and has you guessing whether she's faithful to her husband and her cause, or not. Her demeanor and misdirection is utilized to the fullest extent under Zemeckis' direction and it pays off. Jared Harris and Lizzy Caplan also give the film some extra star power with excellent performances as well.

Allied may not be the super spy thriller we may have expected but it does fill the time with great chemistry between two great performers, a story with much heart, and beautifully shot action sequences.