Israel, 1997. At a book launch, we learn that three Mossad agents (Israel’s secret service) were sent to East Berlin in 1964 to capture Dr Vogel, ’the Surgeon of Birkenau’. The plan was to bring the Nazi back to Israel to be tried for crimes against humanity. Problems during the mission end with him shot dead, which turns the three agents into celebrities. Yet that success seems to weigh on all three, because the book doesn’t seem faithful to what really happened…
What have we got?
- An Israeli spy film adapted to American tastes.
- Actors on the rise: Jessica Chastain (wordless in The Tree of Life) and Sam Worthington (Avatar, where 3D makes sense).
- Established actors: Helen Mirren (great fun in RED) and Tom Wilkinson (watch him in RocknRolla).
- Two timelines, 1964 and 1997, in which the film unfolds, and plenty of flashbacks.
- A bit of action, a bit of suspense.
- A script that’s interesting at the start.
What haven’t we got?
- A script that’s interesting at the end.
- Stellar performances (adequate at best).
- A consistent story.
How does it turn out?
An ambitious film that only manages to be entertaining. The first 20 minutes are promising and set up a plot that hooks you. But as the story develops it lacks depth, both in its situations and in its characters. It has some interesting moments (the shared tension between Rachel and Dr Vogel in the clinic) but not much else. From there the story wobbles. We expect strong minds from the characters (they’re Mossad agents, after all!), yet they crumble at the first encounter with the sadistic doctor. And very little is said in the film about his crimes. It’s easy to link him with Dr Mengele, played in The Boys from Brazil, but here it’s hard to share the characters’ loathing of him, because the character is so shallow. That undermines the realism of the story. Another weak point is how disconnected the 1964 characters are from their 1997 counterparts. The actors don’t look alike physically, and they don’t even have mannerisms that identify them. All that carries over is a scar on Rachel’s face (probably symbolising the burden of the debt). Still, the film has doses of action, moments of suspense and competent scenes that make it entertaining. It revolves around a debt the three characters have carried since the mission described in the book. Seeing how it has shaped their lives and how they have come to terms with it can make the film interesting. But the script’s shallowness stops us connecting with the characters and leaves holes in the story.
Watch it if it’s on TV, if you watch every spy film going, or if you’re a fan of the original or of any of the actors. Don’t expect much, but it’s diverting. Much better-crafted spy films are Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Munich.
Entertaining.