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Brad Pitt in a still from the movie "Allied."
Review: Zemeckis' 'Allied' is interesting, but sloppy
GUS HUNNINGHAKE
@gushunninghake
Since his breakout into the spotlight with 1985's "Back to the Future," Robert Zemecki has taken an interesting track as a director.
He found success in the 90s with films like "Forrest Gump" and at the turn of the century with "Cast Away." These Academy Award-winning films marked Zemeckis' ability to create impactful drama and strikingly human characters. The years that followed saw Zemeckis turn to animation with "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf" in 2005 and 2007, respectively. These films failed to grasp any human elements or sense of fun in their narrative and had some of the worst digital animation in film history. "Flight," released in 2012, saw Zemeckis return back to form with a well-realized story of depression, guilt and alcoholism. His latest film, "Allied," goes back to the 40s and tries to make something new and compelling out of a tried and true spy mystery formula.
"Allied" stars Brad Pitt as Max Vatan, a Canadian intelligence officer sent to Casablanca to assassinate the German ambassador along with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), a member of the French Resistance. When they complete their mission, Vatan convinces Beausejour to come with him to Great Britain and marry him. They have a child together, and all is well in the world, until Spec Ops informs Vatan that his wife may be a German spy, and it is up to him to find out the truth before he is forced to kill the woman he loves.
Zemeckis does a fine job directing this film. He really knows how to get compelling shots from interesting angles, and this is present throughout the runtime.
That said, there are many scenes that feel a bit long or drawn out for no reason. In these scenes, Zemeckis spends a bit too much time showing the viewer cool sets and the actors/actresses by using long takes and tracking shots. If there was a sense of importance to these shots, then their length in the overall scene would feel validated. However, because these shots do nothing to drive the narrative or set the mood of the scene, they make it feel a bit dull and slower than it should.
Another noticeable caveat in Zeekeck's direction
is his over-reliance on CGI. Whereas his past films perfectly blended practical scenery with CGI, this film uses it in certain scenes without mixing many practical sets or locations, making it a bit more noticeable even to eyes not looking for flaws.
Pitt and Cotillard deliver fine performances, but the romance that develops between them never feels fully valid or heartfelt, which is important in a story like this. After only knowing each other for about a week, they decide to move away together and get married. These decisions feel a bit unwarranted because of how rushed they are, and that makes their supposed romance in the rest of the film a bit less convincing. The story needs to allow these two time to grow into each other and know each other before making all these decisions, but instead it quickly moves to the action sequences and cuts down on time that could have been spent developing these two's relationship.
The film's narrative follows a beat-for-beat track that most wartime mysteries take. A man falls in love with a woman, marries her, has a kid and is told that the person they love might not be who they seem. This
then leads the protagonist through various clues to the truth, while the possible antagonist either becomes more nefarious in their actions or stays the same until the reveal comes. "Alied" follows this track to the note until the third act. There are some compelling sequences in the third act that go a bit off track from the normal formula, but then the story wraps up rather abruptly, which brings the fresh narrative look to a sad halt. This act is reflective of all three acts, which suffer from tonal and pacing inconsistencies from start to finish.
Overall, "Allied" offers an interesting story, but is bogged down by sloppy execution and a seemingly short two-hour runtime. Zemeckis directs with grace and a natural smoothness, though he relies a bit too much on CGI at times. Pitt and Cotillard deliver fine performances, but they're brought down by a script that just falls a bit short of fully realizing each character. This film is a good enough time, but might be a bit disappointing for those looking for something a little different from a middle-of-the-road mystery.
Edited by Lexanna Sims
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