Review | The Debt

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Us Rating: ***

This crafty, briskly paced spy thriller begins in 1997: Retired Israeli secret agent Rachel (Helen Mirren) is lauded for assassinating a Nazi surgeon decades earlier. But did she? Cut to 1965, when a young Rachel (Jessica Chastain) and her brooding partners (Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas) track their target. The versatile Chastain brings nuance and depth to her tense scenes. But Mirren's final battle (with syringes!) veers toward the silly.

-- MARA REINSTEIN