Educational and entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2009)

Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2, Superman Returns) steps away from his typical fantastic stories and instead embarks on a straight-forward historical drama with Valkyrie.
Based on the true story of the German resistance's plot to kill Hitler, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is a decorated war hero secretly against the Fuhrer. He gets an opportunity to do something about it by joining the German resistance, and they plot a daring coup to topple Hitler's Germany.
Carice van Houten (who oddly looks like Vilma Santos!) plays von Stauffenberg's wife Nina, and while without much dialogue, effectively transmits emotion on screen with the slightest of expressions. This acting style is strongly echoed by the rest of the cast: Kenneth Branagh (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hamlet) plays the cunning Major-General Henning von Tresckow, who enlists him in the resistance; Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Notes on a Scandal, Love Actually) plays the wishy-washy General Friedrich Olbricht and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) plays the careerist General Friedrich Fromm. The handsome Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, King Kong) plays yet another ironic role as Nazi supporter, Major Otto Ernst Remer.
Reminiscent of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, Valkyrie is beautifully told in bittersweet fashion. The suspense and drama are efficiently translated by the stellar cast, told in a wonderful, old-school way of storytelling. Educational and entertaining.