

Sometimes a film seems to have everything going for it and still comes up short; such is the case with The Debt. Its credentials are impeccable: a fine cast headed by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, and Jessica Chastain, just for starters, directed by John Madden, and written by three talented Brits, Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, and Peter Straughan.
This is a retread of an Israeli film, Ha-Hov, so presumably the English-language team had a solid blueprint to follow. Yet, as we’ve seen time and time again, the strength of —
For a variety of reasons, I had low expectations for this fantasy-action yarn—and even lower expectations for its 3-D presentation, as I learned that the process was layered onto the movie after the fact. As it turns out, the film was better than I expected, while the 3-D was even worse. The glasses I wore at the official Warner Bros. press screening were heavy and cumbersome, and what I saw onscreen—dimensionally speaking—wasn’t worth the bother. This cheapjack approach could kill off audiences’ desire to see 3-D movies, and certainly may—
Get the latest headlines from Leonard Maltin delivered to your inbox every day.