‘I’ ON CULTURE
Some movies look and sound better in the “coming attractions” reels than the real thing. Such is the case with Allied, a movie supposedly about World War II but really about the appeal of its two stars. In theory, it probably sounded wonderful. In reality, it has more than a bit of charm but plot problems you could drive a panzer division through.
A French Canadian spy, Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), works for the British and parachutes into Nazi-controlled French North Africa to work with French Resistance worker Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) to kill some key Nazis. She is tough, maybe tougher than he is, but somehow, while escaping from a deadly mission, in the middle of a huge sandstorm, the two of them take time off for some non-job-related nookie. Well, when you look as good as they do, why not?
They arrive in Casablanca (a really nice war movie, far better than this one, centered on that town) and, in fancy formal wear, shoot up a whole group of people, at least some of whom might be Nazis.
Despite warnings by Marianne that love in wartime is crazy, Max proposes. They settle down to a life of child-rearing in England. But somehow the British bosses wind up suspecting Marianne of being a Nazi spy. It seems a bit of a stretch, but the British aristocracy has never been known for tolerance.
That leads to Max’s orders to find out whether the mother of his child is a spy and, if she is, to kill her. I think the old army leaders called that morale-raising. At any rate, the rest of the film consists of watching all the suspicions raised. Nothing like demanding that a man who risked his life for you spy on his wife and maybe kill her.
Of course, anyone who has watched more than a handful of movies knows the rules about having really good-looking heroes kill their really brave, heroic, good-looking wives, so why bother worrying about the ending?
If that bit sounds a lot like the general plot of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the movie Pitt made with then-wife Angelina Jolie, take note that this is not a comedy. It is, however, very stylish. In some ways, it is a throwback to old Hollywood; the stars could do whatever was called for in a film, but they always looked great while doing it.
Robert Zemeckis, the director, has done many great films (Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3, Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Forest Gump). He brings back the sense of glamor of Old Hollywood. The film and the stars always look great. His use of computer-generated imagery is very effective as he re-creates the town of Casablanca and the desert surrounding it before re-creating war-torn England.
Pitt is good as the conflicted hero. Yes, he spends most of the last half of the movie with a confused look on his face, but that should be expected in the part. He may not be as able to show many conflicting emotions as some other stars, but he looks far better than most while doing so. Whoever handled his makeup, which really convinces us that a 52-year-old guy is a youngster, deserves an Oscar nomination.
Cotillard, however, is fantastic. She is not only beautiful, but she is able to really keep the audience guessing about her motivations. This is one of a whole lot of movies where she is really impressive. She’s got the style and the acting chops to pull off a complex part. When she’s on screen, Pitt seems smaller. Jared Harris, as his commanding officer Frank Heslop, becomes the face of impregnable British smugness.
This is hardly a bad movie, but it is far from being really good. In Casablanca, Bogart and Bergman might have said that their problems don’t amount to a hill of beans in a crazy world, but no one believed it then or even now. In this film, the characters clearly take precedence over minor issues like the World War II situation, and we don’t give a hill of beans about them.
That is a real shame. Not a bad date movie, but it would probably be best to wait a couple of months and see it On Demand for far less.
