Allied (2016) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Robert Zemeckis

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Matthew Goode

Max Vatan (Pitt) arrives in World War II Morocco to meet the woman who will pose as his spouse for an assassination operation.    He is a Canadian spy while she, Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard) is French.    His French is pretty good she says, but his Parisian accent needs work.    They live together under the guise of being married, all the while setting up the assassination of the local Nazi ambassador.     We see the two actually like each other and will inevitably fall in love.    In another movie, the plot would end there.    In Allied, it is merely the setup to a second half in which the same people struggle with internal conflicts that threaten the crush them and their love.     They marry and have a child, but soon Marianne is under investigation as a Nazi double agent and Max must execute her if it turns out she is one.

I'm not really giving away spoilers, since the movie's trailers made these plot points crystal clear.    Allied works better in manufacturing its suspense by internalizing Max's conflict of loyalty to his family vs. loyalty to the Allied war effort.    Once the accusation is made, Max is forced to try and behave normally while conducting an unauthorized covert investigation.    He wants desperately to exonerate her.    He is like the patient who looks for second, third, and fourth opinions in an attempt to hear news he wants to hear; even if it isn't the truth.

Pitt and Cotillard create a believable, grounded relationship.    She more or less retires from the spy game once their child is born in war torn London, where Luftwaffe attacks commence often and take shelter alarms are sounded and heard for miles around.     In one very convincing sequence, we see a plane shot down that just misses the Vatan home.    The reality of war threatens to emotionally, if not physically, take its toll on them.    It may even tear them apart.     They are convincing as lovers and they are exceptional actors.    Everything else falls into place after that. 

Robert Zemeckis is a master at marrying seamless visuals with engrossing stories.    Allied has a feel of world events pressing down on the Vatans, especially in London, which was ground zero for the Allied war effort in Europe.   We know the outcome can either be Marianne is innocent and this was all a mistake, or that she is indeed guilty.    The odds of being the former are unlikely and watching movies, we all kind of know this even if we hope for the best.    Allied isn't as much about the plot as about love attempting to flourish in a world that has no place for it.    In the spy world, love may not be possible because the lovers are forever playing parts.    They don't know what is real and what is for show in each other.    After a while, they might not even be able to tell the difference in themselves.    And that could be deadly for one or both.