In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I mainly knew about this film because of the leading actress, having seen the DVD cover many times, apart from that I didn't have a clue what the plot or story involved, I hope it may be something worth passing the time with, directed by John Madden (Mrs Brown, Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Basically in 1965, Mossad agents Rachel (Jessica Chastain), Stephan (Marton Csokas) and David (Sam Worthington) are in East Berlin, they are assigned to kidnap Nazi Dieter Vogel (Quantum of Solace's Jesper Christensen), aka The Surgeon of Birkenau, a war criminal who carried out medical experiments on Jews during World War II. During the process, Stephan tells Rachel that David lost his entire family in The Holocaust, this drives his dedication to their mission, but also makes his hesitant to become emotionally involved with her, both Stephan and David are attracted to Rachel, she is attracted to David, but sleeps with Stephan. The group are successful in the abduction, with Rachel injecting the doctor with sedative during an examination, but fail to bring him to the west side, so they are forced to hold him in an apartment building, taking turns to monitor and feed him. But one night, following a severe beating from David, Vogel manages to cut through his bonds and escapes, but the trio of young agents lie to their government, telling them that Rachel killed the doctor while he was running away. More than thirty years later, in 1997, the three agents are honoured as heroes, Rachel's daughter Sarah Gold (Romi Aboulafia) is releasing a book about the mission of her mother and the two other agents. The three former agents, Rachel Singer (Dame Helen Mirren) who still bares the scar across her face, Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) who is now a paralytic in a wheelchair, and David Peretz (Ciarán Hinds) who is missing, they are now all retired. Rachel still feels uncomfortable about the lie they have been living with, out of the blue David appears in Tel Aviv and commits suicide, Stephan investigates his death. Soon enough it is discovered that Dieter Vogel is alive in a hospital in Kiev, Ukraine, and will be interviewed by a journalist, it is discovered the man is an impostor, but Rachel is shocked to see the real Vogel. Rachel is determined to travel to Kiev and conclude what should have been done all those years ago, in a confrontation Vogel stabs Rachel twice with a pair of scissors, but she kills Vogel with a poisonous syringe in the back, as she limps away, a note she wrote for journalists telling the truth about their mission is discovered, to be relayed to the world. Mirren with her short time on screen is fine, and Chastain then a rising star proves herself, there are some gripping enough action style sequences, fights and a botched mission, the switching backwards and forwards in time a little distracting, and the choice of actors playing the younger and older characters is questionable, when they don't look much like each other, is is mostly slow, but a relatively interesting spy drama thriller. Okay!

Reviewed April 2012An intriguing spy thriller about three Mossad agents about their mission 30 years ago and how its consequences are affecting them now. Excellent performances, a little rough on the edges yet competent screenplay and an even tone makes this an interesting watch before it all gets messed up by the end. Sarah Gold has just launched her book about a Mossad mission that took place 30 years back where a Nazi war criminal was captured and killed from Russian occupied Berlin. The mission consisted of 3 agents Rachael Singer (Now: Helen Mirren/Then: Jessica Chastain), Stephan Gold (Now: Tom Wilkinson/Then: Marton Csokas) and David Peretz (Now: Ciarán Hinds/Then: Sam Worthington). Sarah is the daughter of Rachael and Stephan. The mission was to capture Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) responsible for experimenting and killing hundreds of Jews during the Nazi rule and delivering him back to Israel for a trial. The agents plan and prepare for the delivery, but the circumstances go off their plan and the rest is about how they managed it then and how it is affecting them now. Also deals with Rachael's feelings for both men in her team and how they end up. The real star of this movie is Jessica Chastain. She is unbelievably beautiful not just for her looks but also the portrayal of her character as a vulnerable yet determined young agent going to any lengths to fulfill her mission objective. Most interesting part is also the time line during their mission, which is shot with the right ratio of subtlety and panache. Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas also deliver apt performances. Where it all goes wrong is towards the end, not just because I am not a huge fan of sudden change of mind about honesty, but the way it is dealt with. Apart from the climax mess, the rest is so compelling made more by Jessica Chastain. Watch it for the new star, Jessica Chastain and some thrilling spy action sans fancy gadgets and over-the-top styling.

I'm glad that I finally saw it. All these years something stopped me from watching it, but not this time. So I forget what this film was about and went for it thinking it was about money related theme as the title hints. That's a surprise, because it was a spy film and a good one too. I almost loved the whole film, but a few parts were not up to the expectations including the conclusion. I mean I liked that, but according to the climate in the story I anticipated a good ending, even it was cliché I would have not cared.It is the remake of an Israeli film of the same name and obviously slight changes were made in this version. There are two sets of the same characters, because the story takes place in the two different timelines. Hence the young ones and the old ones of the same roles were played by the different actors. They all were amazing, particularly Jessica Chastain led from the front and finished it off quite neatly by Helen Mirren. At one point I thought it was a martial art film, but that part was just a build up like any spy theme.The story holds the suspense, like it does not let us know what they were doing. And when you come to know their intention, the new angle of suspense arises. Like theirs plan to accomplish the mission. Besides the love triangle pours more anticipation towards the conclusion. Apart from the actors, the writing was the most impressive job, to tell the tale very successfully. If it could have not shied away of the clichés, it would have been a masterpiece. Still a very good film and definitely worth a watch.7/10

But first, what great casting. The three main characters are at first in their twenties, then, with different actors, thirty years later but are almost completely credible as older versions of themselves.Jessica Chastain/Helem Mirren is Rachel, one of three Mossad agents who aim to abduct a Nazi war criminal in East Berlin and get him back to Israel for trial and execution. Their way of getting him is plausible and well acted, produced and directed. Alas, things go wrong, they get him but can't get him out of Berlin, then he escapes, nearly kills Rachel and so they conspire to tell their masters that they did kill him. They have to live with the deception until much later Rachel's daughter writes a book all about her wonderful mother. The other two agents David and Stefan have to cope with Rachel who is on her first mission. Relationships develop of course.In my view, Ciaran Hinds as the older version of Stefan, looks more like the younger version of David. But apart from that, it is such a dramatic and gripping movie. I give it a 9.The very different point is that this is a movie about an operation that basically has failed. All along, we are expecting them to succeed just like almost every other spy story.