Review: The Debt

The Debt

Dir. John Madden

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: MA15+

Running Time: 113mins

Twin storylines play out in parallel time frames in The Debt, the latest film by John Madden. Despite its wartime thriller genes and gun-toting leads, The Debt is a much quieter film than you might imagine as it tells its story of misplaced heroics and dastardly deeds kept quiet by bloodthirsty governments. Based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name, The Debt traces the lives of three young Mossad agents whose mission it was to track down, kidnap and hand over to officials a Nazi war criminal known as “The Surgeon of Birkeanu”. Some 25 years later, however, the secrets of their mission begin to unravel and… well, to say much more would ruin some of the few tricks that Madden and co-writers Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan have up their sleeves.


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Review: Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock
Dir. Rowan Joffe
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 110mins

Audiences may not be aware of Graham Greene’s 1938 novel thriller Brighton Rock, or its original 1947 adaptation starring Richard Attenborough. Even those who berate filmmakers for constantly returning to the same old wells of inspiration with remake after reboot after sequel can’t fault director and screenwriter Rowan Joffe for making another version; 64 years is a long time! What can be faulted, however, is Joffe’s handling of the material, which certainly doesn’t live up to the precedent set by the Boulting Brothers’ 1947 version.

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For those interested... Brighton Rock (1947), B+ > Brighton Rock (2011), C-