VALKYRIE
Directed by Bryan Singer
GRADE: C PLUS
Reviewed by Sean Burns
PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY 12/24/08

After Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic tirade a couple years ago, comedian Artie Lange noted, "The only way this guy can save his career is if he goes back in time and kills Hitler." Tom Cruise must have been listening.

The box office's former top gun is far more famous these days for bizarre behavior than blockbuster openings, so in desperate need of career rehab, he stars here as Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, Nazi with a conscience, and architect of the suitcase bombing that nearly killed Hitler in the waning days of WWII. It's a classy, handsomely mounted production, directed with brisk efficiency by Bryan Singer. And as a co-worker surmised, "It'll probably be wicked suspenseful for anybody who didn't pay attention in history class."

Obviously, this is a challenge facing most fact-based material. None of us went into TITANIC wondering whether or not the boat was going to sink. But then again, TITANIC wasn't exactly trying to be a thriller about avoiding icebergs on a perilous nautical voyage.

VALKYRIE is short on characterization and long on Hitchockian set-pieces, and is a good deal leaner than your typical year-end WWII drama. Normally, this would be a refreshing change of pace, but without any wider context or challenging point of view, the movie is too narrowly focused on the nuts and bolts of an assassination attempt that we already know was a failure. It's awfully hard to get invested.

As far as technical exercises go, VALKYRIE's fairly impressive, tightly framed and well-edited, even though Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography is a bit on the dingy side. Von Stauffenberg's crew is filled out by a fine supporting cast, most of whom aren't given much to do besides gravely discuss maps and logistics. Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Terence Stamp all do that slightly hammy thing that British actors can't help but do whenever they're wearing Nazi uniforms. Most of them are trying so hard to be sympathetic here -- it's a good thing nobody mentions the Jews.

Tom Cruise is... well, he's Tom Cruise again: focused, noble and over-accentuating every line in a determined whisper. There isn't really a character for him to play here, just a skill set. Despite the period trappings, VALKYRIE's not really all that different from one of Cruise's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies.

In the end, you just have to wonder why a flick featuring a one-armed, eye-patch-wearing Tom Cruise who tries to kill Hitler isn't more fun than this.