Allied: A Stylish but Weak Spy Drama
“Allied” presents a stylish but ultimately underwhelming spy drama centered around a Canadian intelligence officer who, at the height of World War II, begins to suspect his French wife of being a traitor.
The film follows Max (Brad Pitt), a Canadian pilot and saboteur, who parachutes into French Morocco in 1942 to participate in the assassination of a new German ambassador. He is partnered with Marianne (Marion Cotillard), a seasoned French Resistance agent. During the operation, the two develop a strong connection, leading them to marry and start a family after their evacuation to Britain. However, a year later, Max is informed by his superiors that Marianne may be an impostor and a German spy. If these accusations are confirmed, Max must kill his wife himself, or face a court-martial as a traitor.
During the filming of “Allied,” rumors circulated about a romance between Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. In reality, the actress had recently announced that she was expecting her second child with her partner, Guillaume Canet.
One of Hollywood’s cardinal rules is that a film should quickly establish its central conflict, which will then be resolved in the climax. The prologue should not exceed ten to fifteen minutes, no matter how engaging it may be.
“Allied” defies this convention. The two-hour film only reveals the possibility of Marianne being a spy midway through the narrative, forcing Max to either expose or exonerate his wife and decide how to act if she turns out to be a Nazi agent. Why would experienced filmmakers like director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) and screenwriter Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises”) commit such a basic error?
The scenes set in Casablanca were actually filmed in the Canary Islands.
A Slow Burn Romance
Firstly, they can’t resist recreating the Morocco of the 1940s, reminiscent of the iconic war drama “Casablanca,” and playing with plot parallels, even though “Allied” and Michael Curtiz’s film tell very different stories. Secondly, they believe it’s necessary to first convince the audience of the protagonists’ closeness and love before subjecting those feelings to a test. Therefore, “Allied” spends its first hour detailing Max and Marianne’s meeting and the evolution of their feelings. Of course, there’s some action (it’s still a modern war film), but the first half is primarily a love story, not a daring sabotage mission.
Lack of Chemistry
Unfortunately, Knight and Zemeckis’s plan fails for a simple reason: Pitt and Cotillard are bright and attractive stars, but there is a distinct lack of romantic spark between them. No matter how hard the film tries to convince the audience of the characters’ passionate love, its efforts only elicit laughter and internal cries of “I don’t believe it!”. Cotillard maintains such a mysterious expression throughout the film that it’s difficult to discern what her character is thinking, while Pitt wears a perpetually hunted look, as if he fears Angelina Jolie will burst onto the set with an ax at any moment. While Pitt may have his reasons for portraying the Canadian pilot in this way, it’s hardly the demeanor one would expect from a brave and lovestruck intelligence officer.
Missed Opportunities
As a result, the first half of the film only succeeds in conveying the Moroccan exoticism mixed with European civilization, while the second half doesn’t receive enough screen time to tell a complete spy story with unexpected twists and a tense confrontation between “good” and “bad” characters.
The second hour of “Allied” sees Max frantically searching for people who knew the real Marianne and can confirm whether his wife is an impostor. Meanwhile, Marianne does little to arouse suspicion, and the villains remain largely absent, leaving Max to fight shadows. While there is some intrigue, and the film intersperses the dialogue with action (the hero must travel to occupied France to get a definitive answer), it’s clear that the film could have been much more engaging if it had immediately presented Marianne as a double agent and pitted the loving protagonists against each other in the spirit of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” but with a more serious tone. What’s the point of spending an hour portraying Marianne as a super-warrior and super-spy if, in the second half of the film, she behaves like a docile housewife and caring mother?
Final Thoughts
Without delving into spoilers, the ending reflects a worldview that may not appeal to everyone. Overall, “Allied,” with its café and bar “meetings,” stylish outfits, almost peaceful life, and other trappings of a highly civilized society, pales in comparison to the harshness of Soviet and Russian cinema about World War II, where heroes shoot from trenches, blow up tanks, and die for a sip of water, rather than throwing lavish parties with boxes of whiskey and beer. This is not our war – it is the war of those who could hide behind an anti-tank ditch called the English Channel while our ancestors fought near Moscow, in Stalingrad, and on the approaches to Leningrad.
In conclusion, “Allied” is not the worst war film ever made, but its merits lie primarily in the high-budget recreation of Morocco and London in the 1940s, rather than in constructing a complex, dramatic, and convincing narrative. The film introduces a promising theme but explores it weakly and simplistically. It also serves as a reminder that Pitt, despite his heroic appearance, is better suited to “bad” or “ambiguous” guys from “Fight Club,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” or “Inglourious Basterds” than straightforward “good” guys like Max, because such roles constrain him and prevent him from fully expressing himself.