Exceeding Its Grasp, by Bob Connally

While it would be unfair to ask any film to be on par with one of the greatest ever made, when a movie chooses to open its story in 1942 Casablanca, it’s going to have a lot to live up to. While Allied boasts Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard as its leads, a screenplay by Steven Knight (Locke), and direction by Robert Zemeckis, it’s no surprise that it is not in the same league as Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca.

Max Vatan (Pitt) of Canadian Intelligence is being sent into Morocco to assassinate an important Nazi target, joining forces with Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard) of the French Resistance. Posing as a married couple, their mission is a success but despite their better judgment, the two can’t help but fall in love, ultimately marrying and having a child in London during the Blitz. However, Max is shocked to learn that Marianne may in fact be spying for the Germans and he’s tasked by his superiors to get to the truth. If she is indeed a Nazi spy, Max has been ordered to execute her himself.

According to Knight, his original screenplay is based upon a true story he was told several years ago. While I don’t doubt him, the film itself doesn’t make the story feel real. It comes across as a movie that uses spying as a metaphor for marriage, calling to mind the superior- and far more nuanced- TV drama The Americans. Knight and Zemeckis opt to give Allied a large, sweeping feel, with its love scene in a sandstorm and Marianne giving birth on the streets of London as bombs fall from above. This only goes further in taking away the sense of reality the story could have had.

Despite the sometimes overwrought nature of the film, Pitt really gives a terrific, low-key performance. Max’s sadness is the most relatable element of the film. While it won’t surprise the audience that the woman he fell in love with on a spy mission might turn out to have been lying to him, we can see that deep down he knows it could be true in spite of his protestations and insistence that she is innocent. We may feel that he should have known better, but we remain firmly on his side, wanting him to be right. Cotillard for her part gives a solid performance. It’s not amongst her very best, but she keeps us guessing what the truth really is throughout the film.

Allied reaches for great heights but falls a bit short. Had it not been so obvious and grand in its reach, it may have actually gotten there. It’s not bad, but you’ll be happier watching Casablanca again.