Tom Cruise Plays One Hotsy-Totsy Nazi

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2009)

Had a better actor than Tom Cruise been cast in the lead role, "Valkyrie" might have gone in some interesting directions. But it's Tom Cruise we get, and so "Valkyrie" ends up being a modestly exciting action film that staunchly resists the impulse to be anything special.
Cruise plays a German officer with anti-Hitler sentiments, who leads a covert operation to assassinate the dictator and stage a coup in the last days of WWII. The film is based on a true story, but take that for whatever it's worth. Director Bryan Singer, of "The Usual Suspects" fame, keeps things moving along at a clip, but all of the period detail and pretensions to historical accuracy can't obscure the fact that this is just routine Hollywood action fare. Any potential the screenplay might have afforded to draw parallels between the ruthless Fuhrer and Cruise's single-minded idealist are tossed aside, and the film decides instead to treat Cruise unambiguously as a fallen hero. Makes the film go down smoother perhaps, but also makes it much less interesting.
The supporting cast is a who's who of British actors that includes Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Wilkinson.
Grade: B