Allied

Robert Zemeckis' Allied foreplays with us swiftly for the initial half hour. The movie is seductive, and we'll talk about it in terms of senses. It has a pristine quality cinematography. Don Burgess' camera filters through layers of clouds in the sky leading to an attractive parachute landing scene! The same can be said about the craft balloons at the sky. The single theme music extravasates a spy-ish espionage tone. The entire episode taking place in Casablanca, French Morocco radiates romance with its sultry nature, culture, language & architecture; especially the calmness & silence at night fall. The serenity found in the crickets' noise at dusk is inviting! Due to the peaceful moments, whenever a loud bang or a hit is edited as sudden transition, it works so effectively!

Between the two leads, Marion Cotillard plays the more attractive character as Marianne Beausejour. She is very thorough & oozes class everytime she speaks or walks! The way she instructs Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) on how to act properly as a husband to the intricate details is interesting. The roof went down when he said: "We're married, why would we laugh?". Their chemistry warms the screen. There is no way one would not fall in love with Marianne, as predictively did Max. Just by moving images, you could see both sweeping each other from the floor. Even though the romance has an obtuse angle here, we are constantly riveted into thinking about the mysterious mission. That's the driver in the main seat.

The poker game although abrupt, is an intense sequence, probably carried out as a test by Hobar (August Diehl). This is a cool hint to remind why a spy has to be trained in all aspects, so that he or she could face uncountable variety of situations like this. Funny to recollect that the same actor appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds in an alike gripping episode, sharing the same motion picture with Brad Pitt too! When the shooting ensues, we are pumped out of our minds & finally all comes to revelation! Post this, the film begins to ebb.

While the earlier part of the story takes its time to firm the grounds of our personas, the storyline speeds through from marriage to childbirth in a matter of minutes later on. It is our thought that if the tale had remained in Casablanca, focusing on the relationship as well as the mission back to back, the end product would have been way better. Since the makers have decided to pull focus on the leads' life as couples, the shift isn't smooth from the first to the current section. Things were losing direction, before the Blue Dye procedure enters to rescue. When his wife is accused of being a spy, Max is restless. You know it clearly when an immaculate scene lets the audiences hear the clock needle rotation over anything in the house, to show what's running in the man's mind. With glimmers of doubts, he wants to know the answer instantly.

Yes, the ending is sad. When Marianne spills the truth about herself, you could see the fear in her eyes and it all works very well. We see Max personally murdering every hidden German spies in London before attempting to evade. If he is this capable of handling the rats himself, why did not Marianne tell Max about the threats before any of these happened? He would have solved it easily for her! The conflict is entirely unconvincing! Also, there are certain portions of the screenplay that do lag. Long drawn takes like the ones showing Max walking down staircases, hallways and porches could have been easily trimmed off! These clips do not reveal anything about the character or helps the story move forward. To ponder, why aren't the characters speaking in any local accent if they are working and living in London, England? Without a doubt, the attack and ambushes at the prison is great, but it seems unnecessary to the plot or characters, as it was shown just to show something transpiring.

The jets and flights, including the light signals are authentic. Prosthetic makeup for Guy Sangster (Matthew Goode) is without a mistake! Unbelievable times are those war times, where it takes place at house lawns on every other day. Three times in the film, we get to see a mini slow-mo done so aesthetically to highlight crucial points. It's such a nice, little touch to an already amorous picture!