Allied
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Ebrahim, Xavier De Guillebon
Duration: 124 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Brad Pitt’s Max Valant is a Canadian airman, on special assignment for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. He is parachuted into Casablanca to hook up with French resistance operative Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard). They play at being a married couple, while plotting a very risky mission to assassinate the German Ambassador.

The mission is successful and comes with an added bonus – Max and Marianne fall in love and retreat back to London in an attempt to live happily as the war rages on around them. But their happiness is brought to an abrupt halt when Max is called in by his superiors and given some devastating news… intelligence has uncovered that Marianne may not be who she claims she is.

Max is determined to find out the truth, putting both his marriage and his life at risk.

In Allied, director Robert Zem-eckis has created an epic war drama, which like last year’s Bridge of Spies artfully creates the sense of time and place we would associate with Hollywood war films of yore. With the romance at its core being an obvious nod to Casablanca (it helps that the first part of the film is set over there), superior production and costume design and effective and inconspicuous special effects (a scene depicting a devastating air raid over a hospital is alarmingly well-staged) the director and his team have certainly ticked all the right boxes.

Yet, for all its high production values, the one thing that convinces less than it should is the relationship between the protagonists, impacting somewhat the emotional outcome of the film. Rather surprisingly, for all the star wattage Pitt and Cotillard bring to the project, the chemistry between them is rather mixed.

A solid screenplay that can’t be faulted

Let’s put it another way – tabloid followers won’t find any hint of the alleged off-camera romance between Pitt and Cotillard that purportedly brought Brangelina to an abrupt halt.

Initially, the banter between the two works and they are convincing as colleagues on a mission who are initially suspicious of one another.

Yet, when the relationship grows deeper there is something lacking. And, as they move to London, it feels like the pretence of being a married couple has continued, so it is hard to engage with them on that level.  It must be said that a rather steamy scene between them set in a car in the middle of a fierce sandstorm is riveting to watch – yet more for its style than the substance of the connection between the two.

Otherwise, it is fair to say that Knight has produced a solid screenplay that can’t be faulted – from the pair’s initial meeting in Casablanca to their preparation for the mission and the mission itself, which is executed with efficient ferocity.

Overall, it excellently projects the heightened tension wrought by the situation the protagonists are embroiled in. There are some heart-in-mouth moments of tension as Max embarks on his mission to clear his wife’s name especially a rather elaborate – and a tad unbelievable – quick flight across the channel to interrogate a man who knew Marianne in her past. But, as the film rolls towards its denouement, the desire to know the truth feels more cerebral than emotional.

Both actors fit their roles undoubtedly very well. Pitt’s square-jawed handsomeness is the perfect canvas for the valiant and suave Canadian Max. Yet, oftentimes he comes across as oddly staid and the character is a tad one-dimensional.

Cotillard fares much better.  Her understated beauty and innate intelligence are the perfect ingredients for the patriotic resistance fighter, effective assassin, and femme-fatale turned loving housewife and mother who may or may not be the villain of the piece. And the actress commits to the role every step of the way keeping the audience guessing to the very end.

Allied also boasts some excellent cameos – Matthew Goode has a brief but powerful scene as a war-scarred former colleague of Max’s, while Simon McBurney is coldly effective as the meek-looking but brutally tough official who informs Max of his wife’s alleged betrayal.