“Allied”: Beautiful, Deadly, Review

Director Robert Zemeckis’s Allied is a beautifully designed and executed story about two spies who fall in love. Sounds a little cheesy by that description, but running assassination ops in the middle of Casablanca will do that, apparently.

This is Brad Pitt back in his element, this being his 4th World War II role, which he does extremely well.  This time however, he’s wearing more makeup than his gorgeous costar.  No really, it’ll take you out of a few moments.  While yes, he does look younger than his 52 years, any trace of wrinkles or personality has been blended away. His character Max Vatan is a Canadian air force captain working with the British.

The true hero is Marion Cotillard,  cool and sexy as a French cucumber. Sure, it doesn’t help matters that her character’s name is Marianne, which of course made *me* happy.  But her collected presence on screen is topped only by her breathtaking costumes. It’s rare we have a film based in this timeframe where the woman is the more competent, and it was refreshing.

Marianne and Max meet while assassinating a Nazi commander during a party in Casablanca.  And I should warn you, if Nazi symbol iconography (uniforms, flags) bothers you, you may want to skip the first hour of the film.  I do give mad props for having Max’s sister (played by Lizzy Caplan) be a lesbian in London during the time.  What a lovely choice.

Love blossoms in the Moroccan desert, and our spies end up getting married and having a daughter. The happy family is crushed however, by Max being told his wife is more than likely a German spy. I won’t ruin what constitutes the majority of the tension in the film, so be prepared for a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

The Good:
The COSTUMES!  Dear God, the costumes.  I would go so far as to say it’s my favorite part of the film, as the characters are largely defined by how comfortable they are in scenes, and the beautiful clothes help convey that. Joanna Johnston (Man From U.N.C.L.E., Forrest Gump, Hellraiser) really outdid herself. There is a particular outfit of Marion’s that made me squeel, I mean other than the AMAZING bias cut silk gown, that most Indiana Jones fans will recognize. Very reminiscent of Elsa, and why not, as Johnston is who did those costumes. It also explains why each of the uniforms are perfect, as she ALSO did Saving Private Ryan, and previously working with Pitt on Valkyrie. 

The action is also good, maybe a little slow for the spy genre, but I found it well paced.

The Bad:

Pitt’s makeup at times is completely distracting. I wouldn’t spend so much time talking about it if it wasn’t.  Sure, it takes a good 15-20 years off his age, but it isn’t really necessary in this film.

The ending feels like it was tacked on to help audiences get closure.  The resolution of the conflict is fine, I have no issues with that.  It’s the voice over at the very end that seems like it doesn’t belong. I would love to track down the shooting script and see how it was meant to end.

SCORE: 8.5 out of 10, would see again

Beautiful film, great performances, strong visuals, good writing.  Such a breath of fresh air in this realm of weak scripts and poor editing.

Allied opens worldwide on Friday, November 18th 2016.