The Debt

I went in looking for a slow plodding movie, instead it was well paces and enjoyable. Few movies are as perfectly cast as The Debt. It's just unreal how believable it is that Jessica Chastain is a young Helen Mirren (Helen Mirren was great as usual), that Sam Worthington is a young Ciaran Hinds, and that Marton Csokas is a young Tom Wilkinson.

While Israeli accents often slip amongst the actors, in particular Sam Worthington, the performances of the cast are pure and emotionally authentic, while director John Madden infuses the scenes of the past with so much raw tension that The Debt often rivals Hitchcock classics, and then the scenes in the present are so marvelously played by the older actors conveying so much with simple looks. There’s richness to character in The Debt beyond the usual thrills of a thriller like this, and it is what makes The Debt so special and enjoyable. Even if the present is less exciting to watch than the past, the two work in tandem, with the past delivering the thrills and the present the emotion of the events.

The movie was grim at times and even shocking in some scene. The theater had just a few people and most where older couples. I don't think it will do well in box office numbers. But it is a good movie not great but very good. If you like to see how people deal with moral and ethical issues and not be super hero this is the movie. There are no James Bond or Salt characters but real fully identifiable human being with flaws and defects. There is a lingering question at the end of the movie but no spoiler in here. I'm saying that because I don't know the answer either.