Allied

The movie opens in 1942 with Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) parachuting into the Moroccan desert.  In Casablanca, he meets his contact, Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard).  The pair pose as a married couple and attend a Nazi reception where they assassinate the ambassador before making good their escape.  Back in England, they get married and have a daughter.  A year later, Max is informed that his wife is suspected of being a spy.

 

The movie has its moments but doesn't rise above average.  Shortly after Max and Marianne meet, she explains that she keeps the emotions real to maintain her cover.  She admits to really liking the Nazis with whom she works but, when it came to the mission, she kills one of them.  Later, when she gives birth to their daughter, she declares to Max that 'This is the real me' or something to that effect.  If you saw the trailer, this scene gives up the mystery.  Worse, there are no other suspects.  The movie doesn't offer an alternate explanation so that the audience can think perhaps she isn't a Nazi spy.  The movie mostly follows Max and his desperate efforts to prove the mother of his child is not spying for the Nazis.  Considering the lengths to which he went, it is a testament of the love for his wife.

 

There are some really strange features.  When Max is told that his wife is a suspected spy, he is told that if true, he must kill her to prove his innocence.  That is amazingly unfriendly.  Moreover, they include him in the plot to unmask her.  Why?  Bonds of love cannot be turned off like that and surely the intelligence agencies of the day knew that.  If they discovered her in the first place because she was leaking stuff she gleaned from Max, why not just feed Max something without his knowing participation?

 

Fun and engaging while the setting was Casablanca but dreary and unsatisfying back in London.  Worth seeing if you like Pitt or Cotillard but otherwise pass on this one.