There are several formulas for creating an award winning film. Allied looks to be following one of them perfectly. Previous award nominees, making a film set in World War II. While the structure may be a formula, the film looks anything but. Here's the first look at Bratt Pitt and Marion Cotillard in the new spy thriller by Robert Zemeckis.
While the trailer does a good job of keeping us guessing as to exactly what it is that we're seeing, the basic premise of Allied is available for us to learn. Bratt Pitt plays an intelligence agent who meets a French resistance fighter, played by Marion Cotillard, in North Africa in 1942. Later, the pair are reunited in London and resume the affair they began previously. However, as there is still a war going on, the pair face difficulties in keeping themselves, and their relationship alive. There may also be some question as to whether or not they're both entirely honest about where their allegiances lie. We wonder if the title, Allied, shouldn't include a question mark.
The first thing that we really noticed in the trailer wasn't a shot or a story point, it was the director. We're so used to seeing Robert Zemeckis behind something computer animated or more family friendly that it's easy to forget he directed films like Denzel Washington's Flight, or that he directed Tom Hanks in Cast Away as well as Forest Gump. This looks to be a return to form. No uncanny valley animation or 3D gimmicks in sight, just drama.
While Allied, which is produced by Graham King, is marketing itself as an espionage thriller, the trailer gives us plenty of straight up action as well. Both Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard are seen wielding machine guns in the trailer, we also get a shot of tank nearly exploding. While Allied feels like a film trying to hit an Oscar BINGO, it doesn't look to be a straight character driven drama, like so many of your traditional Best Picture nominees. This one at least appears to have some action as well.
Allied is written by Steven Knight, the man behind the hit series Peaky Blinders. This is also the first of two Brad Pitt films that the writer will be involved in, he also worked on a draft of World War Z 2. He was also the writer behind Viggo Mortensen's Academy Award nomination for _Eastern Promises. _
Everything about Allied looks set up to receive awards consideration. That doesn't mean that the film won't be good enough to deserve whatever accolades it receives. We'll find out when we see Allied on screen November 23.
