Allied

Allied is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, and takes place in 1942. The plot sees an intelligence officer and a French resistance fighter work to infiltrate German intelligence for a vital mission. Having fallen in love and back in England, Sam (Pitt) makes a terrible discovery and is faced with an impossible dilemma.

One of the most annoying things in cinema is being sold an image by trailers for a film, only to find  it turns out to be something different from what you had been led to believe. In some cases, like Deepwater Horizon, the trailers screamed action blockbuster but turned out to be a well developed and hugely thought provoking drama. With Allied, whilst the climax may have become inevitable with 20 minutes to go, it just didn't flow a I expected it would

Whilst the film was an intentionally slow burner - the first half of the film, whilst slow, was stunning. Set in Casablanca with beautiful scenery and fantastic story development, it actually felt as if I was watching a completely different film from the London based second half. Having returned from Africa the beautiful storytelling went completely downhill an lost focus, important life moments for characters are glazed over as scenes jump between each other. 

Robert Zemeckis  never ceases to impress us as a director as he clearly spends so much time on making sure every scene in every one of his works is a visual glory. Every single shot in this film is absolutely gorgeous, the entire film is shot as if it were actually filmed in the time it's set, the way cameras follow characters and landscape shots of rural Casablanca melt into the next scene stunningly. Although at times Zemeckis unnecessarily over used CGI, for instance the opening scene, visual effects used to show dogfights above London during the blitz were phenomenal.

Brad Pitt felt horribly miscast as the leading role - extremely wooden as he struggled to show more than one side to his character. His awkward interactions with Cotillard made their relationship forced and un-conviving. He felt stupidly misplaced alongside the  flawless Marion Cotillard who carried the film very successfully by herself. 

In the end, Allied had the best parts of old school cinema and the worst parts of modern cinema today. Although it's leading lady was timeless and it's cinematography was stunning, the film had original ideas that could have been great but sadly lost focus towards the last act of the film.

I am going to give Allied:

5.8/10