Review: Allied

Set in 1942, Brad Pitt plays a French-Canadian spy who falls for a French Resistance agent (Marion Cotillard) while they’re working together on a mission in Casablanca. Sometime later they’re married, however his superiors (played by Jared Harris and Simon McBurney) give him a new assignment that rocks his world. Could his sweet, trusted wife be a dirty rotten Nazi spy? Lizzy Caplan plays Pitt’s lesbian sister.

Director Robert Zemeckis (“Romancing the Stone”, “Back to the Future”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Forrest Gump”, “Cast Away”, “Flight”- all quality films, “Gump” especially) and screenwriter Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises”, “Locke”) obviously had classic films like “Casablanca”, “Now, Voyager”, “Notorious”, and many others in mind for this 2016 spy/romance flick. In fact, I think it would’ve looked much better in B&W where some of the FX work wouldn’t look quite so obvious. That’s a bit of a disappointment from a normally tech-savvy director like Zemeckis. Still, it’s an enjoyable throwback to 40s spy/romance cinema (and real Hitchcock material in particular), and I must say I enjoyed it much more than I expected. Unfortunately, whoever devised the trailer for the film has done it an entire disservice, making certain important things far too known for my liking. It’s such a serious issue that while it doesn’t prevent the film from a recommendation, it does prevent it from being even better than it is. So that’s a real shame.

Marion Cotillard couldn’t be more perfectly cast from her first scene. She’s a star, and boy how does she shine here. Brad Pitt is no Bogey or Cary Grant, but makes for an acceptable Robert Redford/George Peppard/William Holden-esque alternative. The supporting cast don’t get nearly as much screen time, and Jared Harris in particular continues to be wasted for reasons beyond me. However, Lizzy Caplan steals her every scene and a very serious Simon McBurney gives a bit of a Donald Pleasence performance in his brief but memorable turn.

The story’s actually a good one, so it pisses me off even more that the trailer makes a very important part of it transparent. One thing I didn’t get, though: Cotillard tells Pitt that French men like to sleep on the roof. At no point in the film do we see anyone other than Pitt sleeping on the roof. Or being on the roof at all. Weird.

Nothing new, but a solid film of its type, benefitting greatly from an excellent turn by Marion Cotillard and convincing period detail in the production design. Shame about that trailer, though. One for 40s spy/romance buffs for sure, so long as you can tolerate some likely non-period profanity and don’t expect another “Casablanca”. It’s the film “The Good German” wanted but failed to be.

Rating: B-