War once again rears its ugly head in Allied, a World War II thriller that wanders from North Africa to England and occupied France.  Intelligence agent Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) is assigned a suicide mission with French woman Marianne (Marion Cotillard) to kill a German ambassador.  Skill enables them to survive, and, smitten with each other, they marry and have children.  In 1942 London, however, Max is told that Marianne may be a German spy, and is tasked to test her loyalty — and execute her if she fails his test.

Robert Zemeckis’ film is lushly produced, with beautiful locations, fashions and cinematography, yet the script seems to lack a final polish.  The story is modern, yet old-fashioned, something one could easily see Humphrey Bogart making (scenes in Casablanca make this very easy to imagine).  Most of it is effective, yet crucial scenes seem underwritten, while the climax is the opposite, with Max repeating himself inanely while Marianne takes decisive action.  My biggest complaint is that Max rarely shows real emotion; he’s so self-controlling that he seems robotic.  Yes, that’s what the character calls for, but when someone tells you your wife is a German spy you might actually get angry.  This flaw is even more apparent at the end of the story.

The story, however, is quite engaging, and beautifully staged.  The night-time air raid over London is particularly remarkable.  And once the marital intrigue begins the suspense mounts rather effectively.  I liked where the story went, though I didn’t particularly care for the way in which it concluded, which I felt could have been handled differently, and better.  And a few elements seemed out of place, such as Max’s openly lesbian sister (Lizzy Caplan) and open drug use among the American soldiers.  Ultimately, I feel Allied is a good film, but one that will be remembered less for its quality than for being the film that may have broken up Pitt’s marriage to Angelina Jolie.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  7 December 2016.