I really enjoyed what is likely to be a polarizing film, upon thinking about it, its probably deliberately so. How else to take the opening scene, which is hugely confrontational, but has little if anything to do with the rest of the movie? I guess that's one of the things I liked about Nocturnal Animals, in that its a pretty loaded film, about relationships, revenge, and compromise, but its oblique as hell about any of the points it wants to make, or if its even making a point at all. Its a standard issue domestic melodrama about unhappy rich people, and its a grit-infused revenge thriller, and how its two halves interplay and collide off of each other is what keeps things interesting. Performances are uniformly strong, with a special nod towards a dyspeptic Micheal Shannon, who gives a shot of fun into a pretty dour flick.
Does Brad Pitt have some sort of World War II jones that was only ever obvious in retrospect, like how Rachel McAdams seems to be drawn to roles where her partner travels through time? Anyways, Allied is a solid enough if not spectacular WWII-set romantic thriller. Its old fashioned in its storytelling, hell it could be a remake of a Hitchcock movie, but with contemporary R-rated elements added. Robert Zemeckis, who has always been a meticulous craftsman, gives the whole suspense-thriller thing another try, and there's a few nifty set pieces along the way. But while the thriller half of things is fine, the dramatics don't land quite as well as they should, it is a stiff Brad Pitt, the overly familiar (or classical, if you will) plotting, or maybe its just bad timing? Seeing a good film in wide release for an adult audience is only easy to do from November to January (Oscar season), maybe I'd be a little less cool to this in between superhero films a few months back. Anyways, its fine, maybe even a bit better than that, but being the third best WWII film starring Brad Pitt doesn't sound like a great prize.
