Valkyrie

Sometimes there's very little to say about a movie. I can't come up with anything that was wrong with Valkyrie, but then it didn't really register with me, either. By the time I started the car driving away from the theater, it had completely left my system. It is a competent, if uninspired, thriller.

Directed by Bryan Singer, Valkyrie tells the true story of an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler by men in his inner circle. Much of the film is told in a crisp, informative style, so it had me interested as if I were watching a show about it on the History Channel.

Tom Cruise plays the colonel who assumes the role of ringleader, and we get the benefits and distractions that come with casting a megastar in the part. Cruise does command attention--it's hard not to cast your eyes on him when he's in the frame, but he doesn't quite live down the fact that it's Tom Cruise. I've never found him a convincing figure when it comes to historical figures (such as in The Last Samurai), he's got too contemporary a vibe about him. During a scene when his character interacts with his small children, I was thinking about Suri.

Singer has assembled a first rank ensemble of supporting actors, a squadron of guys who will give you "a-ha, I know that guy!" moments. Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard all pop up at various times, looking good in their pressed Nazi uniforms.

I think the main reason why I couldn't get too involved in the story is that I, as well as any culturally literate person, knows the outcome. This certainly isn't Singer or his screenwriters' fault, it's just that they chose to tell this story and went into it with this drawback. If we hadn't known how Hitler came to his demise, this might have provoked a far more visceral response, but we can't unlearn what he already know.

Valkyrie is a good enough film that it had me interested in just what the facts are. I have no idea where the filmmakers took liberty, but from a quick review of a Wikipedia article on the assassination plot, it seems pretty close. Initially Germany objected to the filming, and would not let them use German locations. It turns out this was because they objected to Cruise, because Scientology is classified as an illegal cult there.