Movie Review—Allied

                                                                                                                                

by Peter J. O'Connell

Allied. Released: Nov. 2016. Runtime: 124 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, some sexuality/nudity, language and brief drug use.

Casablanca,1942. A man and a woman, played by glamorous stars, are caught up in intrigue and romance during World War II. You’ve seen this movie before, right? Casablanca (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Wrong; it’s Allied, released in November of this year and starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. 

Pitt is Max Vatan, a Canadian serving with Britain’s Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer. Posing as a businessman from Paris, Max has been assigned to Casablanca to meet with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), sent by the French Resistance. Their task: assassinate a German official. This they do in a spectacular scene, but not before they fall in love and have some steamy scenes together, including a particularly notable one in a car during a sandstorm in the desert.

Max returns to London with Marianne, and the two find refuge from the storms of war raging around them by marrying and having a baby. The comfort of family life is shattered, however, when questions are raised about Marianne’s true allegiances. Max has to undertake a dangerous mission to answer these questions. The answers, in their turn, pose further life and death questions for the two lovers.

In Allied director Robert Zemeckis has sought to merge the kind of appeal that a classic film from the “Golden Age” of Hollywood has with a contemporary sensibility. His attempt is admirable, though not completely successful. As for the acting, Cotillard is quite good (though no Bergman), and Pitt is OK (though definitely no Bogart). So, here’s looking at you Allied, but we’ll always have Casablanca!