Allied – the new Brad Pitt film – brace yourself for a serious saga!

We all love to guess what will happen next when we go to the movies – especially when crime and espionage are involved. Setting that concept aside for a moment, the costumes alone in this film are enchanting but the story is absolutely mesmerising, and believably based on fact.  After getting off to a slightly slow start, the drama hots up in more than one area – firstly in the romance between the two stars Max Vattan (Brad Pitt) and Marrianne Beausejour (Marion Cottillard) but also in the meaning of the relationship of the pair and ultimate goals under scrutiny from higher forces in this 1940’s cliffhanger.

Casablanca is mentioned and the story opens in Morrocco, North Africa.  It has a kind of clingy style as though the original film Casablanca is in its wake.  Pitt and Cottillard are set up as husband and wife under directions from the war office and sparks soon fly – of a satisfying kind.  The two soon fall in love and later drive to the desert and there is a passionate scene in the car during a ferocious sandstorm.

It is difficult to give more details of the story without being a plot spoiler.  It ticks all the boxes of war, romance, secrets and deception and was directed by Oscar winning Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump,Cast Away).

When the couple originally meet, Marrianne says “Being good at this kind of work is not very beautiful” in response to Max’s comment, “They said you were beautiful……and good”.   Enjoy the allusions to people fighting for a fun life in wartime and some cunning plots run by Max to try and expose wrongdoing and espionage. We’ll have to wait and see if it wins some awards, but my guess is yes, it will.

Back to playing guessing games.  In this drama which develops into wonderful action scenes and human interest sagas, I got a couple of guesses right – see if you do too or whether you get too involved in the story to even know who’s doing what to who, let alone how!

Enjoy

Penny Nair Price