Miramax Films, Marv Films, Pioneer Pictures,
Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christensen, Marton Csokas, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Romi Aboulafia, Melinda Korcsog
Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) is a former Mossad intelligence agent. She is now reliving her grandest days when she and 2 other agents accomplished the capture of a Nazi war criminal back in 1965. Her daughter has just written a book praising the events of the capture, but it seems there is more to the story that was told, and now Rachel and her partners Stephan and David (Tom Wilkenson and Ciaran Hinds) have to relive what they did, and some things they are very ashamed of. The suspense builds as we jump back and forth from 1997 to 1965 and put the pieces of this mission back together and find the truth.
I usually enjoy a good World War II movie. This one, however, never grabbed me. It wasn’t hard enough to follow, granted, but I just never got invested in their adventures. I never felt an real suspense, nor did I really care of the outcome. The flipping of the two casts (Mirren, Wilkinson, Hinds) with the younger versions of themselves (Jessica Chastain, Marton, Csokasa, and Sam Worthington) was done about as good as they could, but I still found it annoying and disconcerting. I’m not sure if there was any other way to age the characters 30 years without resorting to hiring two separate casts, but I found this constant swapping of casts off-putting.
Then there’s the ending. When it’s over, you’re really not sure what you have just seen. I just didn’t get into it. Whatever happened, happened, and I’m not going to spend my days theorizing on what it all means. I know there are some who love this film, but for the mainstream, I don’t feel like it gave me enough to recommend it. Boring a lot of the time, and confusing the rest, and the constant flopping of characters makes it even more confusing. Then when the end comes and you don’t really know what happened, and worse, don’t really care very much, it seems like a given to just skip this one!
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