Directed by:
Robert ZemeckisScreenplay:
Steven KnightCinematography:
Don BurgessComposer:
Alan SilvestriCast:
Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Simon McBurney, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Betts, Matthew Goode, Camille Cottin, August Diehl, Thierry Frémont (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Set during World War Two, the film follows Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), a French-Canadian spy who meets fellow agent Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) while on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Casablanca. Tasked with killing a Nazi official, the pair pose as lovers in order to gain access to their target. After developing genuine feelings for each other while working together, Max and Marianne reunite in London where they decide to get married and start a family of their own. However, not long after settling into their new life, a shocking development reveals one of them to be a double agent and leaves the other facing some very difficult decisions. (Paramount Pictures AU)
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Reviews (11)
Robert Zemeckis is considered a visionary, but at the core, he is and will always be old-fashioned. And that old-fashionedness is insidious, because Allied pretend to be a Moroccan war trifle for a while, later transforms through intense action interludes into an honest drama, and then doesn't recoil from flirting with a good amount of tension. Over time, additional layers of storytelling are added, and in the end, there remains a taste of a pleasantly genre-defying spectacle that makes one forget about the overly drawn-out pace of the first act.
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Allied is definitely a simplification of history, but in a nice retro-Hollywood guise that makes us turn a blind eye to that
fact. It is surprisingly not tacky, dramatic bordering on chilling due to the atmosphere of the period in which the story
takes place. It is also perfectly directed with cool professionalism and without the tear-jerking we might expect from
Robert Zemeckis, and without any grand love motifs we might expect from Alan Silvestri. Because such a well-written script with
such a powerful story doesn't need any of that. The ending totally got me.
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If it weren’t for the botoxed Brad Pitt and several scenes that reeked of Hollywood, where for instance a couple makes love in the midst of a sandstorm in Morroco and Marion Cotillard then gives birth during an air raid of London, I would be literally excited about the movie. I haven’t seen such great war atmosphere for a long time, which actually is no wonder. Robert Zemeckis is a great director and he’s truly great at creating high-quality atmospheres. The ending of the movie was also literally aced, but I guess Angelina Jolie probably wouldn’t share my excitement…
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Knight doesn’t write bad stories and when he pays homage to Hollywood classics like Casablanca, he manages to add an element of modernity. Pitt’s cold fish Max Vatan melting in the arms of Marion Cotillard in action scenes is still an effective killing machine and the spying game is much more convincing than usual. Details, details and more details. Zemeckis has made a strong genre piece with abundant gleaming camera shots and, the occasional feeble special effect here and there doesn’t matter in the slightest. A quality romantic wartime drama about family, love and good people in a difficult situation. Ideal for a date.
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Robert Zemeckis likes to dwell on the past, and all his famous films from the late 80s and early 90s are full of adventure, passion and joy that only the medium of cinema itself can convey. Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her... They always had a touch of the good old days. And Allied is indeed the good old days, referencing Casablanca, serving up action, espionage, romance, not even parodying the scenes with the Nazis, just nostalgically remembering the time we romantically idealize.
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