ALLIED : Tuesday 3rd January 2017.

'ALLIED' which I saw earlier this week is Directed by Robert Zemeckis and Written by Steven Knight based on a story he had been told some thirty years ago during his days travelling around the US, which whilst not confirmed as being true, proved too good to be true not to make a film out of it. And so whilst the notion has been kicking around for thirty years or so, it is only now that his story has been committed to celluloid. Costing US$85M the film opened in the US in late November and has so far made back US$87M, and garnered mixed reviews since, although its two lead performances have been largely praised.

Here Royal Canadian Airforce Intelligence Officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) must travel to Casablanca to assassinate a German Ambassador. The film picks up with him parachuting into the French Morocco desert sometime in 1942, being picked up by a car en route to Casablanca to rendezvous with his 'wife', a new identity for the mission, and a suitcase full of secret agent stuff! He is partnered up with French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) who fled from France after her resistance group was compromised and killed. The couple masquerade as French husband and wife, under the guise that they are being reunited in Casablanca after a long period of absence from each other due to his career in remote phosphate mining. She is trusted by the German's who have a stronghold on the territory.

Their planned assassination is still ten days away, so the couple get acquainted and do the things that couple do - enjoy the streetside cafes, party with acquaintances, be seen together arm in arm, take machine gun shooting practice out in the desert, and make love in the cramped front seat of a car in the middle of a raging sandstorm the day before the assassination attempt (must be a metaphor in there somewhere methinks!), because hey, they both might be dead in 24 hours time if their plan doesn't pull off.

After their mission to kill the German Ambassador at a glitzy gathering goes according to plan, and they are able to escape unhindered, Max asks Marianne to join him back in England. She agrees, they marry, fall pregnant, they set up home in Hampstead and settle down to a life of domesticity with him still working for the British Government and reporting to Frank Heslop as his Commanding Officer (Jared Harris) and friend. In time Marianne gives birth to a baby daughter, Anna, during a bombing raid over London, and the three return to the family home in the suburbs and all is good in the world.

Fast forward a few more months and Max learns from a Special Operations Executive (SOE), that Marianne is in fact suspected of being a German spy, having assumed the identity of the real Marianne, now long since dead. The SOE intend to run a 'blue dye' test whereby at a given time (11:07pm) a phone call will be made to their home and Max is to write down a piece of false intelligence, where Marianne can easily find it. If the information is picked up from intercepted German transmissions within a few days, Max must personally execute her, or be hanged for treason. He is told otherwise to act normally, and not to discuss the matter with anyone. Max is needless to say distraught with this news, and believes it all to be a big mistake - after all Marianne shot and killed the German Ambassador!

Defying orders Max first confides in his sister Bridget (Lizzy Caplan) knowing that she will keep a secret. He then visits a former colleague in hospital who knew Marianne well, but he was blinded in battle and is therefore unable to identify a photograph of her, but points Max in the direction of someone who may be able to help. Ultimately, Max flies to France to meet with someone who knew Marianne and will be able to identify his wife from a photograph. Landing under cover of darkness he learns that his contact is in fact in a local Police cell for drunken and disorderly conduct. Knowing that time is running out and this is his last ditch attempt to clear his wife's name, he and some Resistance Fighters break into the Police Station and confront his contact, who coming out of a drunken stupor recalled that Marianne was an accomplished pianist.

Back in London, Max forcibly takes Marianne to a local pub after hours, but where he knows there is a piano. They break in, and Max orders Marianne to play the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, on the piano because he had been told that she can, and beautifully. Marianne confesses to Max that yes, she is a German spy but her feelings for Max had always been genuine. She advises that her handlers in London had threatened both her and Anna if she did not continue complying with orders. Max refuses to kill his wife as instructed, and instead kills her handlers en route to the local RAF airstrip so that the three of them can effect their escape before the SOE close in with the news that he now knows is inevitable. In the pouring rain at the airstrip their escape plans are foiled by Heslop who intercepts their plans to commandeer a plane. Heslop confirms that their suspicions are confirmed as the Military Police arrive. Marianne gets out of the car, having secured Anna in the back seat, confirms her love for them both, and then promptly shoots herself in the head. She slumps to the ground beside the plane dead. Heslop who witnesses this commands the Military Police that what they saw was Max execute his wife as per his orders, to avoid any repercussions on him.

I enjoyed this romantic war time drama because it is a throw back to the war time melodramas of yesteryear that seldom get made any more these days. Ever since the days of 'Saving Private Ryan' and right up to the recent 'Hacksaw Ridge' war time films have been about the horrors of war writ large in graphic detail of severed limbs, flayed bodies, psychological trauma, physical injury, bloodshed and pain. 'Allied' offers us some welcome respite from this - it is a simple enough story, but well told by Robert Zemeckis who has a track record of delivering great performances from his Actors. And so he does so with Pitt and Cotillard. The pair are well matched and well suited to this period piece both looking very dapper and debonair in their '40's uniforms and fashions, and the era is recreated well enough to make the film complete. Certainly worth the price of entry, and worth looking at in homage to those films this one pays tribute to, albeit with a few random acts of violence, sex and profanity that those films of yesteryear wouldn't have deployed. Nonetheless a good watch.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-