John Madden

John Madden's place in the archive is built on an expectation. Kate Stables introduces him as a director who makes quality period dramas and draws awards out of his performers, Shakespeare in Love having brought Oscars to Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench alike. That past, on her reckoning, does not make him the obvious name to put at the head of a thriller, and yet The Debt suits him unexpectedly well: he keeps its flashback structure intriguing rather than irritating. The ending she takes for a strange misstep the film never recovers from.