Now here is a director who has successfully transitioned from the small screen to the silver variety. Afer a string of TV serials, John Madden stormed into the scene with Shakespeare in Love – and what a storm it was. Post that, he has had some low profile movies like Captain Correli’s Mandolin and The Debt which released a couple of years back. I believe he has The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel releasing this year which promises to be a laugh riot. So I guess there should be no question on Madden’s capabilities as a director right? More or less right I guess. But not the whole nine yards right unfortunately.
Firstly, I get quite peeved when directors take the path in between in case of movies which are set in a geographic region where English is not the primary language. Why then do you need to use actors / actresses whose preferred language happens to be English. To make matters worse, you get the likes of the hugely talented Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson to speak with an accent which I am not sure is truly Israeli or Hebrew if you would like to call it that. In contrast, in the same movie, he has got the younger lot of Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington to speak in German. So why then would Madden not consider getting them to speak Hebrew instead of English with a forced accent? I was very disappointed within the first few minutes itself. A mark of a director who is probably not brave enough and not common sensiscal.
But the performances and the story line more than make up for this really bad call from Madden. There are 4 key characters in the entire movie. Rachel Singer, Stephan Gold & David Peretz who are Mossad agents sent to East Berlin to track, capture and bring back alive one Dieter Vogel. The 3 agents are played by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds in the current day i.e. 1997. In 1965 which was the time of the assignment they are played by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas & Sam Worthington respectively. All 6 have performed quite exceptionally I must say. Even Jesper Christensen who playes the sinister Dieter Vogel is brilliant.
What takes the cake though is the premise of the movie which is one of an assignment that goes horribly wrong and how the 3 agents deal with the consequences of the same not only in the immediate future but over a period of 30 years. Will they get any retribution whatsoever? Or does the failure get the better of them? Mind you, Mossad doesn’t take too kindly to failure – or so we have heard. A very different spy story. Exactly the type that audiences would lap up. Put it on your must watch list @ 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1506057497/
Firstly, I get quite peeved when directors take the path in between in case of movies which are set in a geographic region where English is not the primary language. Why then do you need to use actors / actresses whose preferred language happens to be English. To make matters worse, you get the likes of the hugely talented Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson to speak with an accent which I am not sure is truly Israeli or Hebrew if you would like to call it that. In contrast, in the same movie, he has got the younger lot of Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington to speak in German. So why then would Madden not consider getting them to speak Hebrew instead of English with a forced accent? I was very disappointed within the first few minutes itself. A mark of a director who is probably not brave enough and not common sensiscal.
But the performances and the story line more than make up for this really bad call from Madden. There are 4 key characters in the entire movie. Rachel Singer, Stephan Gold & David Peretz who are Mossad agents sent to East Berlin to track, capture and bring back alive one Dieter Vogel. The 3 agents are played by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds in the current day i.e. 1997. In 1965 which was the time of the assignment they are played by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas & Sam Worthington respectively. All 6 have performed quite exceptionally I must say. Even Jesper Christensen who playes the sinister Dieter Vogel is brilliant.
What takes the cake though is the premise of the movie which is one of an assignment that goes horribly wrong and how the 3 agents deal with the consequences of the same not only in the immediate future but over a period of 30 years. Will they get any retribution whatsoever? Or does the failure get the better of them? Mind you, Mossad doesn’t take too kindly to failure – or so we have heard. A very different spy story. Exactly the type that audiences would lap up. Put it on your must watch list @ 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1506057497/
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