"Allied" by Robert Zemeckis (2016)

Every now and than you hear people using that old phrase "they don't make movies like that anymore"  but in fact, its not true.

Classic movies like "Casablanca", "Gone with the Wind" and such are simply predecessors - as movie industry changes, it also metamorphoses with times, follows the trends and sometimes goes back to original ides (the most obvious case being success of newly filmed silent movie "The Artist" ) basically always finding the way to appeal to audiences.Right now we are in the midst of special effects phase which hopefully will disappear soon because its getting tiresome and I deeply regret that directors don't follow examples of intellectual 1960s ancestors like Ingmar Bergman, but right now we have celebrated Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future", "Death Becomes Her", "Forrest Gump", "Cast Away") who have enough of Hollywood clout to attempt revisit to old sweeping war melodrama like "Casablanca". 

Connection with "Casablanca" is very obvious and affectionate, as both movies happen in 1940s Morocco and involve secret resistance agents but very soon Zemeckis follows his own path and moves on. Unlike Bogart and Bergman, these secret agents are not some sentimental old lovers but two hard boiled, well trained fighters who immediately act their given part of married couple, although they have never met before. Their task is to appear genuine enough to be invited to some official dinner where high ranking Nazi officer must be liquidated. Swept in the excitement, they decide to escape to war-thorn London and to get married there. This is where the story really starts as officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) eventually gets informed that his wife (Marion Cotillard) might not be who she claims to be. Vatan and his officials have 72 hours to find out the truth before supposed double agent must be killed. Because movie would not be exciting if truth was discovered too soon, we have all sorts of complications, suspicions and plots involving other people before the inevitable conclusion. It all moves quite fast and Zemeckis craftily weaves the web, hinting at other characters (Vatan's sister Lizzy Caplan for example) so movie is never boring or slow moving, in fact it all appears quite genuine, except the party in wartime London which is too boisterous for its time - Brits were far too buttoned up for that kind of behaviour - but I guess Zemeckis thought it would look good for modern audiences. Surprisingly for such well planned blockbuster, there is not much chemistry between main actors - Cotillard is excellent but Pitt decidedly shows almost no emotions whatsoever, except in one scene where he kicks the chair, making it unclear what he actually thinks or feels about it all. Perhaps that was directors intention, to make us wonder about his motives?

Not bad at all.