Movie review: 'Allied' shows a lack of buzz between its stars

20 January 2017 - 22:13 By Tymon Smith
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Much in the news ahead of its release because of rumours about an affair between stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard (which was supposedly a factor in the demise of Brangelina), Robert Zemeckis's old-school, high-glamour World War 2 drama 'Allied' is disappointingly dull and lifeless.

That's in spite of the writing talents of Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises, Locke, Peaky Blinders), the star power of Pitt and Cotillard, and the nostalgia that the story evokes for classics such as Casablanca and Notorious.

Pitt plays Canadian Air Force captain Max Vatan, parachuted into North Africa behind enemy lines in 1942 and transported to Casablanca where he meets Parisian Marianne Beauséjour, a French resistance fighter. Posing as a couple, they are tasked with the assassination of the German ambassador.

story_article_left1

The idea is that the agents are so attracted to each other that playing husband and wife soon leads to them becoming actual husband and wife in England following the completion of their mission.

They have a daughter and everything seems to be going just wonderfully until Vatan's superiors suspect that his French wife is a German spy (this is not a spoiler as it's all in the trailer).

Vatan's search to prove Marianne's innocence should have kicked the film into high gear but it drags the story out and washes away what few hopes remained for any kind of dramatic tension. Even a half-clever twisty finale can't deliver any real emotional rewards for those who endure the film to its end.

The problem is that Pitt and Cotillard have less chemistry than a vegan and a leather belt. Pitt spends most of his time looking as if he's waiting for someone to come out of a corner and put him out of his misery with a bullet.

Cotillard is adequately opaque, as befits the supposed mystery of her character, but there's not much to her performance beyond that.

WATCH the trailer for Allied

Zemeckis, who knows how to tug heartstrings and play to sentiment - as he's demonstrated in Flight and Forrest Gump - seems unwilling to bring the touches of melodrama that are needed to lift the film beyond a pale and dull imitation of its illustrious predecessors.

What was needed was more of the dramatic sweep and slight manipulation of The English Patient rather than the hands-off, extended Louis Vuitton advert approach that Zemeckis has opted for.

Watching Pitt and Cotillard model 1940s clothes, while certainly an attractive idea, is the premise for a YouTube clip, not a two-hour film.

On paper and in spite of the celebrity gossip and tabloid hype around its stars, Allied has all the necessary elements for a grand, epic World War 2 love story with touches of espionage and intrigue - but on screen the final product is about as interesting as watching a spin cycle at the laundromat on a Sunday evening.

This review was originally published in The Times

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now