The Debt

The Debt (2010), John Madden's espionage thriller, is available to watch online on iFILM. In 1966, three young Mossad agents track down a Nazi doctor in East Berlin, the man known as the Surgeon of Birkenau. The mission became a legend back home. The truth was something else.

Three decades on, Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren), long celebrated as a national hero, learns that a man resembling the dead war criminal has turned up alive. The past she and her former partners (Tom Wilkinson, Ciarán Hinds) buried so carefully starts clawing its way back. The film cuts between two eras: a young Rachel, played by Jessica Chastain, and Sam Worthington run a dangerous operation in a divided Berlin, while their older selves settle the account for an old lie.

Madden builds tension from the weight of a secret rather than chase scenes, letting guilt do the corroding. Chastain, in one of her early lead roles, carries a good half of the picture. It rewards anyone who prefers a smart thriller about guilt and the price of a reputation over action for its own sake. Stream The Debt (2010) online on iFILM.