There was a time where I couldn’t WAIT for a Robert Zemeckis movie. Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Forrest Gump were all seminal moments in my movie appreciation growing up. The man is in a quasi rough patch for him, producing outstanding set pieces around flimsy stories. Allied was my hope for a return to greatness. I mean, a Brad Pitt/Marion Cotillard spy movie during WWII? Awesome….on paper, again. Allied is a solid but unspectacular spy movie, sadly; I fear Zemeckis’s greatness may be behind him.
We open, boldly, in Casablanca. Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), a Canadian, has just arrived to team up with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), a French woman, to infiltrate and execute the leaders of a German stronghold there. They succeed, and with the war over, get married, make babies, and move to London. However, his wife’s shady past has Pitt worried that his life post-war might not be the paradise he wants it to be.
Allied feels old fashioned, like a spy movie that would have been made 20+ years ago. It moves slowly and very deliberately, for both good and bad. The good: it establishes a sense of place well with beautiful set design and costumes, and builds the relationship between the two leads patiently, to let us know the connection between them feels real. The bad: the movie drags when not focused on spycraft, lingering on scenes that are already pretty boring to begin with. Also, Zemeckis continues to struggle with tone: during a party scene where everyone’s trying to hook up, there’s airstrikes going on and Pitt is struggling to help save his wife from awful threats. Zemeckis also uses convenient plot devices to fill exposition he chooses to leave out. Like a spy, Allied looks lovely on its surface, but if you peel back and investigate a bit, you will find some inconsistencies.
The success of Allied relies heavily on the star power of the two leads, but in a weird way. The star power Zemeckis hopes to summon is of the old fashioned star, like Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, or Grace Kelly. Marion Cotillard has ZERO problem looking like a star of old; she fits right in with this story and character, and proves that she could be a star in any era at any time. She also looks GREAT in her outfits. Pitt, however, struggles with his direction. His best roles are when he plays a grittier character instead of radiantly emoting a stoic good guy, like the meh Meet Joe Black. Pitt gives it his all, but next to Cotillard, he’s just not suited for this movie. Maybe George Clooney or Ryan Gosling would have been better.
Remember, every Zemeckis movie will look great on paper. It’s usually a compelling idea for a story, with a strong cast and probably strong visuals. And GREAT clothes. However, sadly, I’d take most of the movies he does with a grain of salt now. Maybe Zemeckis needs to find Doc Brown’s DeLorean; let’s hope he does.