The Debt

Rated R for graphic violence, profanity

 

It is 1966. Three Mossad agents return to Israel — to a heroes’ welcome — from East Berlin. They went to capture the Surgeon of Birkenau, Dieter Vogel, and bring him back to trial in Israel. They came back empty handed, but one of the agents, Rebecca Singer, has a nasty scar on her right cheek and the trio had a story to tell.

It is 1997 and the place is Israel. Sarah, daughter of Rebecca, has written a book about the mission and her hero mother. She is proud of her; all of Israel is proud of her and the other two agents, Stephen Gold and David Peretz, for avenging the torture, mutilation, and murder of thousands of Jews by the monster Vogel.  

The film flips back and forth between a 1966 version of the trio: Rebecca (the exceedingly versatile Jessica Chastain), Stefan (Sam Worthington), and David (Marton Csokas) and their 1997 counterparts: Rebecca (Helen Mirren), Stefan (Tom Wilkinson), and David (Ciarn Hinds). This six-for-three actors technique makes things a little difficult. Like trying to keep track of three peas under three walnut halves being spun in circles by those street dudes fleecing the yokels.

The evil Nazi Doctor is played by Jesper Christensen — both versions — thank you very much making him easier to follow but there is a reason for that but if I told you why, it would be a major “spoiler.”

The film is based on an Israel film, Ha-Hov. The Debt is clearly indebted to guilt with a mega-dose of the pursuit of truth; very foreign-filmy. To add artiness, we get, visually, a lot of light and shadow; the dismalness of Eastern Berlin and the brightness of Tel Aviv; symbolism that gives me brain spasms.

The agents were trying to get the Nazi out by using a closed train station that was stuck between East and West Berlin when the Wall went up. I tried to keep track of “the how” but I got tangled up and just went with the flow of their failure.

Actually, the best scenes were in Herr Doktor’s gynecological examination room with Rachel having to submit to his creepy examination and her treatment of her faux case of infertility. She went through this process to jab the torturer with a hypodermic of some drug…but things went wrong and the trio find themselves trapped in a crappy apartment with the old, but still brutal Nazi who can mess with the heads of the tough Massad agents. All of this makes for some tense moments, but not enough for me.

The Debt is supposed to be an espionage thriller but it is also a character study. But all I could see is a heavy amount of broodiness and, quite frankly, people I really never cared much about. Perhaps all the slipping back and forth between 1966 and 1997 and keeping the actors straight put me in a grumpy mood. Frankly, had I seen it on one of the pay channels (maybe Sundance), at home, I might have been more impressed but I would have forgotten it as soon as I changed the channel to watch something on HBO.

While watching The Debt I remembered so many other films which used similar themes and did a far better job of it, particularly TV’s QBVII which triggered for me, so many decades ago, a (so-far) life-long interest in the Holocaust and Nazi hunting as depicted in history and fiction in both film and print. The Debt just did not set that personal interest antenna a-quiver.

The Debt started off with Oscar pretentiousness, then got tedious in the middle, and toward the end, it imploded into schlocky improbability and clichéd action for the sake of action. I expected more.

Also, what is it with cigarette smoking? Why do filmmakers think that filthy habit lends an air of mystery, sophistication, and “Europization?” It just annoys me.

I can respect people who might find this film entertaining and interesting; I just feel that it just didn’t pay off the debt it owed to films with similar themes that have come before and paid off…in full.

 

The Debt earns three bow ties out of five.