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Parents' Guide to

Allied

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Beautifully made but mature wartime romance.

Movie R 2016 124 minutes
Allied Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In ALLIED, WWII is raging, and intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) gets a new assignment. He's to meet French resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) in Casablanca, Morocco, and pose as her husband. They'll be invited to a party where a German ambassador will be present; their job is to assassinate him. They escape, but not before they fall in love. So they move to London, marry, and have a child together. Life is good until Max is called into headquarters. There he's told that his wife is a spy who's sending covert information to the Germans. But Max believes Marianne is innocent, so he embarks upon a dangerous mission to confirm that she's actually is who she says she is. If he fails, he's required to execute her ... or face the consequences.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (4 ):

Deliberately evoking Casablanca, director Robert Zemeckis proves with this wartime romance that he's a highly skilled craftsman. With Allied, Flight, and The Walk, Zemeckis has embarked upon a new, mature chapter of his career. He doesn't totally shy away from the visual effects and big moments he's long been known for, but now he's more closely focusing on characters and their powerful longings and emotions. He seems to be choosing empathy and compassion, getting behind his characters 100 percent, no matter their failings or drawbacks.

Allied is beautifully constructed, with smooth, polished camerawork and editing, as well as evocative music and design. But it's never self-consciously arty. A love scene in a car in the middle of a desert sandstorm is beautiful, if just a teeny bit silly, but a raucous party sequence, peppered with fear and paranoia, is totally engrossing. Pitt and Cotillard are letter-perfect, not only looking the period, but also generating a warm, vivid onscreen chemistry. This is one of those big, old-fashioned movies "like the ones they used to make."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Allied's violence. How does violence in war movies compare to what you see in other action movies? How is it depicted, and how does it leave you feeling? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

  • How is sex portrayed in the movie? How are the scenes between the loving couple different from the scenes at the party? What message does that send?

  • How is drinking portrayed? Do characters drink for pleasure or for other reasons? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

  • What's more important in this story -- duty to country, or duty to family? Which is more important to you? Why?

  • What's the appeal of war stories? How do we balance the idea of heroes with the idea that war is terrible?

Movie Details

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