Allied * * *

  This is like some people you meet in life.  They might looks glamorous, talk impressively, act convincingly, impress you with their confidence, seem to know what they’re doing, but after a while, you realise they’re not that interesting at all, and don’t even have much of a life plan.

An exciting scene from Allied

   Whilst crediting Zemeckis for the spectacular appearance of Allied I’m going to blame him for its lack of risk taking - because that's the kind of director he is.  A crowd pleaser, but not overly adventurous.  A “Bring home the bacon” guy.

    I’d actually expect more from a Steven Knight screenplay (Locke) but it has one twist in the plot (a twist which they seem to reveal in every trailer and promo) and that’s it.  No sting in the tail, no comeback, no second twist.  I don’t know if Knight, or Zemeckis or a whole bunch of producers decided that any more plot would be too complicated, but that’s the way it is.

    Set in the Second World War, a couple of agents representing the Allied Forces are asked to work together. She is French, he is Canadian - Max and Marianne, played by Brad Pitt and Marian Cotillard. (What, with Fury and Inglourious Basterds and now this,  Brad Pitt has probably spent more time in the second world war than some real soldiers).

       They are told they have to assassinate a high ranking German official in Casablanca. To get close to the Germans they have had to behave like a Nazi sympathising French married couple. They do a good job and have a fun night of killing Nazis with their sten guns.  When the job is done they decide they’d like to go the whole hog.

   Cut to a couple of years later and they’re a real married couple in London.  Max is doing operational work whilst Marianne is virtually a stay at home Mum.  Then he discovers something about her… (as it’s the one plot twist I won’t tell you what it is).

   I don’t want to be too dismissive of Allied because if you look at it one way it is actually a good film.  Each scene is so carefully manicured:  A love scene in a car in a sandstorm, a German bomber crashing into an English common green, Marianne giving birth in a London hospital whilst bombs fall around her. Max encountering a German patrol whilst in France.  It all looks disturbingly real, yet, there is something wooden about the whole thing.  They even try to tick the boxes of audience appeal by giving us a gratuitous lesbian couple.  Like the rest of the film, they are gorgeous to look at but not particularly convincing.  

    In the end Allied impresses you so much with its flash appearance you can’t help but feel disappointed by it’s inability to engage you.  So good looking yet so forgettable.