The pacing of "Allied" could be called into question - mostly because what you really have here are three stories in one, each with a very different feel, although the thread that holds the movie together runs through all three. The first is the story of the attack by the French Resistance on the German Ambassador in Casablanca, in Vichy-French held Morocco. The story opens with Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) - a Canadian officer working ifor British intelligence who's sent in to take part in the attack. He meets up with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) - a member of the Resistance who's leading the attack. This part of the story was pretty fast paced and exciting. It leads in to the second story - a love story between Max and Marianne. They fall in love, and he takes her with him to London, where they marry and have a daughter and spend a couple of years living together in obvious domestic bliss. The story slows down here, befitting the new tone, and helps to flesh out the two characters. The domestic bliss is interrupted by the third part of the story, when the British come to believe that Marianne is actually a German spy, and if they can prove it Max is told that he'll be ordered to kill her. So the movie becomes a sort of suspense-drama. Is she or isn't she? And there's reason to believe either. In a sense these are three very different stories, but I thought they were woven together pretty well and made a movie that was both enjoyable and interesting to watch. Pitt and Cotillard both gave good performances. Marianne was a social animal who liked people and parties, and Max was more of a quiet loner who kept his emotions very much in check, and both actors captured those personalities. The two worked very well together.
The movie does have some strange plotholes and inconsistencies. It was established in Morocco that Max's accent was Quebecois rather than Parisienne (very different) - but Marianne seems able to fix that in just a few days so that no one ever seems to become suspicious that Max may not be who he seems to be? That was a bit strange. And I thought the introduction of Max's sister as a lesbian with her lover in tow was awkward and unnecessary - a relationship unlikely to be lived so openly at that time in history, and therefore it came across as tokenism for today's audience more than anything else. But all movies are going to have points you can quibble about. These were things I noticed, but they didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the movie.
"Allied" builds up very nicely to its last few tragic scenes, and in the end the movie does become a tragedy more than anything else, with the end (with the reading of a letter that Marianne wrote to her daughter) being truly heartwrenching. I'd say that "Allied" is by no means perfect - but it is an altogether enjoyable movie with a compelling story (or stories) and believable performances from the leads. (9/10)
The movie does have some strange plotholes and inconsistencies. It was established in Morocco that Max's accent was Quebecois rather than Parisienne (very different) - but Marianne seems able to fix that in just a few days so that no one ever seems to become suspicious that Max may not be who he seems to be? That was a bit strange. And I thought the introduction of Max's sister as a lesbian with her lover in tow was awkward and unnecessary - a relationship unlikely to be lived so openly at that time in history, and therefore it came across as tokenism for today's audience more than anything else. But all movies are going to have points you can quibble about. These were things I noticed, but they didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the movie.
"Allied" builds up very nicely to its last few tragic scenes, and in the end the movie does become a tragedy more than anything else, with the end (with the reading of a letter that Marianne wrote to her daughter) being truly heartwrenching. I'd say that "Allied" is by no means perfect - but it is an altogether enjoyable movie with a compelling story (or stories) and believable performances from the leads. (9/10)