The fantastic hypothetical, ‘What would you do if you had to kill your spouse as a matter of national security?’ is the basis of Allied, the new Robert Zemeckis film that opened this week.

Two of the world’s beautiful people, Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, star as the potentially doomed couple in a film that right away goes all in to its connection to Casablanca.  Playing a pair of World War II spies, the story starts in a slow burn as we’re drawn into the world these two inhabit, before the hammer of the hypothetical question is given to Brad Pitt’s character.  I’m not the first to say this, but in the special effects everything era, a story that is as good as this one is at one upping the dramatic tension for so long is welcome.  The answer to whether Marion Cotillard’s character is a double agent…I won’t spoil it for you.  I will say her ‘block’, as the beautiful woman who seems like she would randomly stab you in the chest in your sleep, she still owns that corner.  Talia Al’Ghul forever.

Don’t know how much ‘awards strategy’ is behind the release date, but either way this was a good one.