Movie Review: The Debt

This may be the best espionage movie I've ever seen. Let me qualify that by stating that this is not a Bourne/Bond explosion and gadget extravaganza where nameless henchmen are mowed down by the dozens. Instead, "The Debt" may be how actual espionage works, slowly and below the radar with some not-so-clean getaways mixed in.

Three Mossad secret agents are followed in two periods of their lives - in 1965 when they are trying to track down a Nazi (played by Jesper Christensen) infamously known as the "Surgeon of Birkenau" and in 1997 when they have become famous Israeli heroes for killing him.

Gracefully transitioning between the past and present, the movie takes its time unraveling the secrets of its characters and the history they share. What's more, its slow pace (by modern-day spy movie standards) heightens the suspense to an excruciating level. One woman even whimpered in my theater.

And while I'm itching to tell you more about what happens, it's just too good an unraveling to ruin it for you. I will tell you, however, that this may be Sam Worthington's best performance so far. He's phenomenal as a righteous agent trying to accomplish his only goal in life - to catch one of the men who decimated his family - while also aching to break away from that to be with the woman he loves. Throughout the film, you really believe his desperation and his longing and you marvel at the strength of his character not to blow the guy's brains out right then and there -- maybe it's because he has such a naturally earnest face. Jessica Chastain (who you may recognize if you saw "The Help") also pulls out a wonderfully sad performance as the agent who must voluntarily be the patient of the Nazi they're hunting.

I appreciated the attempt to humanize the Surgeon, whose job during the Holocaust consisted of "blinding children to change the colors of their eyes," among other doctorly duties, since every example of him expressing love for some people is contrasted with highlights of his monstrous behavior toward others. He claims that Jews are weak and incapable of killing or fighting when they are presented the chance to do so.

"That's why it only took four soldiers to march 1,000 people to the gas chambers," he said, adding, "no one was willing to fight." Thirty-one years pass before anyone finds out whether he's right. And it's that denial of instant gratification that makes this such a satisfying movie.

In the end, the best part of the film is how it reveals its agents. It doesn't shy away from the fact that these three people have been called upon by their country and personal longings to actually kill a man. Not karate-chop a numbered villain or sniper-shoot a caravan, but to actually kill a man while he's looking them in the eye and asking whether or not they've hurt his wife. And as the noose tightens, you get a sense that they're all prisoners of events from their past. But you'll have to watch for yourself to see whether any of them has a future.