Review of The Debt (2010) by Mike C — 25 Mar 2012

For a long time, I've had a Dr. Mengele story in my netflix queue. I just can't bring myself to watch it. This movie is about a Mengele-type character: a Nazi doctor who experiments on and murders thousands of Jews during WWII. It is up to three Mossad agents to find this war criminal and bring him to justice. Even three decades later when the great geriatric fight club scene ensues.

I start with the lovely Jessica Chastain. Seems like she's in just about everything these days. She's actually pretty good as a gorgeous but tough young agent. The other two guys are good, but Csokas is kinda dickish and unlikable. Later, Mirren is not necessarily believable as an aged Mossad agent. Using Hinds as the elder David was a huge mistake. They look nothing alike and it's distracting and completely ruins the credibility of the movie makers. The guy who plays Vogel is actually pretty good. He has some pretty nifty lines that are not PC, and they are well-delivered. He packs a punch in his relatively little screen time.

It starts out slow, and I was reminded how much I hate spy movies. All the secret nonsense. If the idea is to not draw attention to yourself, everything they do in the movies would draw attention to themselves. I hate it. But the story picks up after the kidnap Vogel. It actually goes quite strong for a while, then comes a pretty weak ending. Just all kinds of nonsense really. I'm being gracious with a 6/10 because I really did like the middle part.

In the end, just a movie with too many flaws. From the giant casting mistake, to some jumping around, to a most improbable ending. It carried good steam about 75 minutes in. Unfortunately, it's a 110 minute movie.