Storyline
The espionage thriller begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team's mission was accomplished - or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.
Genre:
John Madden's Mossad agent thriller starring Helen Mirren fails to find its balance between past and present, despite a strong cast and an interesting premise
The Debt is a period thriller told in two chunks. We open in Tel Aviv in 1997, where the daughter of two ex-Mossad agents (Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson) is launching a book venerating the mission on which her parents met: the celebrated capture of a Nazi war criminal in 1960s Berlin.
Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Killshot) then moves the action back to 1966 to tell the story of the agents’ pursuit and capture of “the surgeon of Birkenau” in Cold War Germany. It’s this 1966 slice where the film sparks with an engaging premise, an atmospheric period setting and a strong performance from Jessica Chastain as the young Rachel Singer.
When we return to the nineties for the
Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Killshot) then moves the action back to 1966 to tell the story of the agents’ pursuit and capture of “the surgeon of Birkenau” in Cold War Germany. It’s this 1966 slice where the film sparks with an engaging premise, an atmospheric period setting and a strong performance from Jessica Chastain as the young Rachel Singer.
When we return to the nineties for the
