The Debt 2010

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Debt poses an arresting question: In a place that's as haunted by history as Israel is, can a lie ever really serve to prop up a larger truth? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Helen Mirren pulls off the impressive trick of dominating the movie even while she's absent for huge chunks of its running time. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It is an exciting movie, full of crises and dramatic turns despite an aura of sadness that seems to pervade it. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The moral has the force of a scolding rather than of a galvanic lived experience. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It probes, with perhaps more energy than clarity, the ethical and psychological complications that can lie hidden beneath a story of simple heroism. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Solemnly tony Oscar bait. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: After a gripping first half, turns into one howler after another. And yet it's still gripping. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: There are movies you want to like that just won't let you. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The film analyzes the implications of heroism and its burdensome weight. It also explores the haunting toll that comes with burying the truth. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Madden's dark, moody, complex exploration of guilt and identity taps into a rich vein of moral ambiguity... Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Put Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson together in a movie and chances are you're not going to be disappointed. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: As it jumps back and forth in time, "The Debt" explores the conflict between expectations and reality, intellect and emotions, truth and regret. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The film's a potboiler but a gripping one, and it leaves you chewing on both its nuances and implausibilities. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A strong cast fails to rescue this ponderous Oscar bait. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The cast does what it can in the service of this assignment. But some jobs simply resist satisfying completion. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The thrills work out better than the smarts. Read more

Michael Granberry, Dallas Morning News: Rather than focus on the evil of the Nazi villain, it wallows in the collective regret of three Israeli Mossad agents who in 1966 let the bad guy slip away when they had him in their clutches. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Debt has the overall air of an Oscar contender that never got into the ring -- well-made, but not spectacular. Still, it serves as a fine, full introduction to Chastain's potential. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Madden's version maintains all the literal and figurative scars left on these characters, but everything here is made at least one degree more obvious, even as the screenplay tries mightily to hide its secrets. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: As a thriller, The Debt performs many if not all the right moves. The suspense builds nicely, the twists come as surprises and its key characters are vivid enough. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Bristling with dangers both corporeal and cerebral, "The Debt" is a superbly crafted espionage thriller packed with Israeli-Nazi score settling. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: There is an awkward, irresoluble tension between the movie's urge to thrill and the weighty pull of the historical obligations that it seeks to assume. How much, to be blunt, should we be enjoying ourselves? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: An excellent international spy thriller, wrapped up in an only-fair mystery. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The movie drowns the deeper questions it raises in a sadistic procedural, an endless circular motion of fight scenes whose only justification is themselves. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Vogel is a genuinely chilling villain, and there are some deeply unsettling scenes between him and his captors. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Awkwardly marrying "Munich"-style moral conundrums with cheesy Robert Ludlum stylings, the slow-paced thriller "The Debt" never pays off. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: What the three pairs of actors lack in semblance (or resemblance), they make up for to a great extent in their performances. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Debt functions both as an edge-of-the-seat thriller and an effective drama about the sometimes passionate, sometimes contentious relationships among the three main characters. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The architecture of "The Debt" has an unfortunate flaw. The younger versions of the characters have scenes that are intrinsically more exciting, but the actors playing the older versions are more interesting. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A Nazi-hunting thriller deepens into a meditation on conscience in The Debt, a movie that holds you in its grip. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A complex suspense story, with shifting chronologies and new angles of observation on a decades-old Mossad mission to Cold War East Berlin. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Debt" eventually settles into a predictable groove that slightly undercuts its impact. Still, it's a film of ambition and substance. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Vogel's introduction, 'This is my hand, and this is the speculum,' may at last have displaced the 'Is it safe?' of Christian Szell--another Mengele stand-in--as the most discomfiting sentence ever uttered by doctor to patient onscreen. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The direction and performances remain as solid as ever, but they're both growing obscured by the top-heavy plot. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Worthington shows a greater range and vulnerability here than he did in either Avatar or Clash of the Titans, where he mostly just flexed his pecs. He may be a genuine movie star yet. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It's a wakeup face slap for a medium that has spent too many warm-weather nights dreaming of superheroes and frat boys. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: 'The Debt' tackles themes of humanity, revenge and truth so successfully it's hard not to find it powerful - even if it's not the Oscar bait it might have hoped to be. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Relentlessly paced and artfully lensed and constructed, it's a first-rate thriller that explores loyalty, duty to country and self, and the price of deception with skill and razor-sharp precision. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Variety: The remake ups the adrenaline factor, and features strong perfs across the board, yet feels bogged down by a weighty love triangle and a subject that merits more than the old-school good vs. evil approach. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Predictably, the holes in the narrative set us up for a twist or three, but, in balance, it's a pleasure to be back in the wet alleys and spy-patrolled streets of the GDR, however vague they seem without '60s black-and-white cinematography. Read more

John DeFore, Washington Post: The Debt roots itself in reality more plausibly than most contemporary spy films without sacrificing the genre's tense thrills. Read more