Ignore the naysayers! AGAIN!

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2008)

The night before I went to the theater to see Valkyrie, I watched a review of it on "At The Movies". I'm glad I didn't listen...BOY AM I GLAD I DIDN'T LISTEN!!! Just about every criticism they made about this movie missed the mark by a country mile. To say that a historical movie cannot build suspense because the eventual outcome is known (a criticism leveled by IFC's Matt Singer) seem almost too stupid for a layman critic to utter, let alone a supposed professional. I found myself wringing my hands several times in this movie, waiting for the heartbreaking events to unfold. I have also heard many critics raving about how poor Tom Cruises performance was...once again, far from reality. I usually maintain that tastes vary, and such variances account for some of the negative reviews, but there are so many off the mark statements being made about this movie, that I wonder if there isn't some hidden agenda at work here, an anti-Cruise bias if you will. I will close by saying that I found the movie to be thoroughly engrossing, superbly acted by a stellar cast, and painstakingly accurate. What more can you ask of a historical drama?