ALLIED

(2016) Max Vatan (Brad Pitt), a Canadian intelligence officer in 1942 WWII, is sent on a mission to North Africa where he meets French resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), the two working together on a mission to assassinate a high-ranking German official.  When the two reunite some time later, the spark that started back when only flares up and they marry, Marianne becoming pregnant with a little girl - love blooming in the middle of war, until Max's superiors plant in him a seed of doubt about whether everything he knows is real.  I was anxious to see this film, reminiscent as the trailer made me about all the great black-and-white wartime films I grew up loving, and I hoped this one would be similar.  It might have been, too, had it not been for an error in casting; Brad Pitt, frankly, is a big rock in the film, trying to convey a variety of expressions with the same two or three fairly-constipated worried looks throughout.  The rest of the cast and film are top quality, and it's a shame director Robert Zemeckis couldn't have pulled a more likable or believable performance from his lead actor; it would have made an okay film something far greater, I think, had a different actor been starring. (rated R)  6/10 stars