Allied Review – Now Showing

We’re doing a review for Allied which stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. It’s a film directed by Robert Zemeckis and will be released November 23 by Columbia Pictures Philippines.

Please note that there are minor spoilers here for this post because while we don’t want to hardsell the movie, its a pretty good movie if you peel away the branding that the studio presented during promotion.

Allied can’t find its footing whether its a strong spy film with romantic elements or a romance film embedded in wartime spy fiction. Nevertheless it had its moments both ups and down. Great cinematography, soul crushing resolution heaped with great potential for a period piece.

The first act is set in Casablanca where we get most of the characterization and setting up key elements for the picture. We meet Max Vatan (Pitt) who is airdropped into the Morrocan desert and later meets with his “wife” Marianne Beauséjour (Cotillard). The mission is to assassinate a Nazi ambassador in Morroco and get the hell away as swift as possible. Planning becomes flirting and romance and after completing their mission, Vatan brings along Marianne with him to London. They have a family and after a year of bliss, Vatan’s superiors gets wind of a possible involvement with Nazi spies in London.

The first act in Morroco was great in my opinion. You’ve got your standard planning and awkward moments but Pitt and Cotillard manages to sell the story. I have to say though, there’s an obvious lack of “oomph” in the chemistry department for both.

Towards the second act and going to the third, that’s when things became really interesting. Suddenly from the generic spy movie set in World War II, we have a detective story, an engaging love story with hints of action here and there and then it becomes a full-on tragedy. Depending on how you view “Allied”, the film will either get you going or it’ll just give you more yawns. I however belong to the former as I’m sucked into this story of a man who wants to know the truth, to know whether the woman he has loved is indeed the woman that he married or if its just one big sham.

So when we get to that ending; that somber, gritty ending for “Allied” we’re invested and it makes it all the more soul-crushing. No, don’t worry, it won’t make you cry or bawl your eyes out. It will make you feel empty and devoid of hapiness. So cheers!

Althroughout the film, Brad Pitt made me realize just how much Hollywood wanted him to be Captain America (before Chris Evans came into the picture anyway). And he’s not even American here. He’s Canadian, with a poofy French accent and all that. Marion Cotillard on the other hand once again proves that she is a beautiful woman with the acting skills to match that beauty. Too bad again, the pairing just doesn’t click. I’d say the pairing worked around 60% of the time. Hell even the sex scenes (no matter how entertaining, kind of feels flat; yes there are actually movies with sex scenes that will make you “kilig” and “Allied” just isn’t one of them).

The plot was what really worked for me and although it left us with a lot of unanswered questions and a few plotholes here and there, I really think “Allied” is a movie worth checking out.

Verdict: 7/10