A great suspenseful thriller that sheds light on an unforgettable event in WWII history

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2008)

"Valkyrie" as the trailers reveals, is about the last assassination attempt made on Hitler's life and the attempted overthrow of the government. The trailers though depict the movie as an action thriller. There is some action, but it is minimum yet that does not make the movie dull at all. Even though the outcome is predictable as I read in my history books, the film moves a mile a minute with suspense and drama.
I was not impressed by Bryan Singer's last movie, "Superman Returns", but in this, he pulls the audience into the depth of these brave characters' plots and schemes. Their motives may not be fully explained, but they are still believable and easy to sympathize with. I personally found Kenneth Branagh's and Tom Wilkinson's performances the best in the supporting category.
They are two characters of the opposite spectrum. Branagh's character wants to see this mission through while Wilkinson's character is afraid and on the fence, willing to do anything to cover his butt. As with Tom Cruise, he gives an electrifying performance as Claus Von Stauffenberg. I will admit that I think he needed to work on a German accent to make him more fit for the role. Then again, the majority of the actors in the film were either British or American.
I have no problem with that, but some realistic German accents would have made it more authentic like with the English speaking Germans in "Battle of the Bulge". I shouldn't complain too much though, since the film starts off with Cruise speaking fluent German and then transfers to English so the audience don't have to read too many subtitles. Overall, "Valkyrie" is a suspenseful thriller that sheds light on an incident in history, which reveals the courage that men were willing to take, to save a nation from destroying itself.