Allied mired in the past Allied (M)
124 mins Allied is a solid three-star movie – not exactly a compliment, but indicative that it’s reasonably entertaining and that some effort went into key aspects like casting, story and production.
Unfortunately, what starts with promise then gets horribly waylaid by stagey cameos and a silly plot-turn better-suited to a po-faced episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo. But first, the positives.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future(s)/Forrest Gump/Flight), it’s a tale of two spies who are thrown together to masquerade as man and wife in World War II-era Morocco, and whose inevitable romance is threatened as the war goes on.
Starring Brad Pitt and the luminous French actress Marion Cotillard, their utterly beguiling first encounter as Mr & Mrs demonstrates not just their characters’ excellent on-the-fly acting, but Cotillard’s extraordinary charm.
She is a timeless beauty with a gaiety to match, as elegant in a slinky ballgown as she is brandishing a submachine gun – and without doubt the movie’s highlight.
French Morocco makes for an interesting setting, although ‘‘Casablanca’’ does look rather like a film set – albeit a fun one to be on. The costumes are to die for, and but for the frequent and jarring use of the F-word, Allied might properly evoke old Hollywood.
But is the back-projection an intentionally quaint effect, or the upshot of budgetary constraints? Whichever, it results in being as unconvincing as Pitt’s acting – stuck, as he is, playing a Canadian officer who is serious to the point of humourless.
The initially intriguing script labours in the second act, and a saccharine, redundant epilogue doesn’t help.
Perhaps made 50 years ago, Allied would have shone, but today it merely dimly glows. – Sarah Watt