Allied (2016)

Summary: It is 1942. Wing Commander Max Vatan, a Canadian seconded to the SOE, is parachuted into Morocco, where he links up with French Resistance fighter Marianne Beauséjour to assassinate the German Ambassador at a party. The task is successful and later Max gets permission for Marianne to come to Uk, where they marry and have a daughter. But later Max is told that Marianne is actually a German spy, who has taken on the persona of Marianne, who actually has been killed in Dieppe. He is told to leave a fake secret message visible in his home. A message containing the information is detected  being transmitted to Germany so the suspicion is confirmed, but Max, not believing the evidence, feels the only way to find out the truth is to go to Dieppe himself and question members of Marianne’s resistance group. How will it all pan out?

Content:  There only one flash of semi-nudity and some sex, particularly as Pitt and Cotillard demonstrate how to get it on in the front seats of a Citroen Light 15. It is probably an advantage that the gear lever sticks out of the dashboard. People smoke and drink a lot. In Morocco there are a number of Nazi instigated parties, so a lot of swastikas about. The heroes dispatch the German ambassador and a lot of other Germans at a party with Sten guns. A lot of family gatherings in Hampstead. Their daughter is born during a bombing raid. A crashing German bomber nearly hits their house during a party. A sombre gathering takes place in a subterranean office with Max is told the bad news. Various scenes on airfields in front of parked Lancasters.

A View: Even though this outing was quite liked by the critics and even more liked by the public on IMDb, it is unlikely to have made money. The critics were divided on whether the stars did well or not. I thought they did OK, but there were incidents and activities which for me did not fit. I don’t think anyone taped magazines on submachine guns together in WWII. Suitable tape was not about. The ambassador in Morocco was on Hitler’s hit list? The party in Max’s house seemed to involved all sorts of lower ranks. Max used a Lysander like  taxi to make a secret flight to Dieppe. Max’s lesbian sister is seen openly snogging her girlfriend at the party. And so on. All in all, maybe a watch while doing your knitting.

Robert Zemeckis is a feted film director, and I have critiqued a number of his films on this site. They include Castaway, Contact and Back to the Future.