Flawed but Interesting

Rating: Null/10 (2 March 2009)

Valkyrie (2008)
*** (out of 4)
Highly flawed but entertaining drama centered around Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and other high ranked German officials who try to hatch a plot to kill Hitler. This is a rather strange movie to get into because for the first hour I was rolling my eyes at a lot of the stuff going on but once the day of the assassination attempt went into effect the movie picked up a lot of steam and for that final hour I found myself caught up in the story and entertained. I think a better movie could be made of the subject but in the end I think the producers were just trying to capture a popcorn movie and on that level they succeeded. I think one of the biggest flaws are the English and British accents being used for the German characters. I understand they couldn't have the actors speaking in German as that would have killed the box office returns here but there's really no excuse to not having German accents. This is especially true for Hitler who just comes off rather nerdy here instead of the terrifying figure he really is. I couldn't help but roll my eyes a few times when he was speaking because it just didn't have that flair that comes from what we're use to seeing from him. The message of the film, and those doing the mission, was to inform people that not every German was a follower of Hitler. That's loud and clear but I must admit that the plot seems to have been watered down or sugar coated because the film plays the assassination plot rather simple because there's never a problem getting close to the main and everyone involved speaks openly about their mission. With all of that said, the final hour contains some nice suspense considering we know how the film ends. It also pays nice respect to the men risking their lives to try and end the tortures being brought by Hitler. The look of the film is very realistic but I will say the English accents sometimes take away from the authenticity. The performances are all decent with the exception of Cruise who just doesn't fit this role. Cruise is one of my favorite actors but I had a very hard time believing him in this role even though it was clear he was giving it his all. Kenneth Branagh and Tom Wilkinson offer up good performances in their few scenes. In the end I think it's best not to take this film overly serious and instead just sit back, have some popcorn and enjoy the story. There are a lot of flaws with the film but I guess that should have been expected considering what the producers were aiming for.