The grand idea behind Valkyrie, director Bryan Singer's first nRelease Date: Dec. 25Director: Bryan SingerWriter: Christopher McQuarrie,
Nathan AlexanderStarring: Tom Cruise, Tom
Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Izzard Studio/Run Time: United Artists,
110 mins.
Nazis were people, too
The grand idea behind Valkyrie,
director Bryan Singer's first non-superhero feature since 1998's Apt
Pupil, is "Nazis weren't all bad." Paul Verhoeven
successfully mined similar ground in Black Book, and with two
of Valkyrie's actors, Carice van Houten and Waldemar Kobus,
but there's still plenty of material to explore. With the added
resonance of catching Tom Cruise partway through a career resurgence
(courtesy of Tropic Thunder) all Singer needed was a taut script
to keep the gears moving in time.The grand idea behind Valkyrie, director Bryan Singer's first nValkyrie's script, written in
part by Singer's Usual Suspects co-conspirator Christopher
McQuarrie, is anything but. It struggles to establish a single
memorable character and only finds the proper balance of tension as
it races to the finish line. Rather than thriving within limited
narrative parameters (we know how the story ends, after all), the
tale battles realism on one side and artistic license on the other.
Both sides lose.
Tom Cruise is Claus von Stauffenberg, a
Nazi Colonel recruited to plan a high-ranking coup after being
wounded in North Africa. The plan: assassinate Adolf Hitler. He
believes that Hitler will be the destruction of Germany, and so
dedicates himself to bombing der Fuhrer right out of his bunker in
East Prussia.
Singer takes his time getting to the
climactic fireworks, during which there is ample opportunity to enjoy
a rare non-ironic turn by Terrence Stamp and charismatic appearances
by Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Izzard. But the talented supporting cast members are memorable more for their own personalities than those of their
roles; only Tom Wilkinson, as a general fiercely protective of his
career, emerges as a realized character. In the meantime, Cruise is
as energetic as a maimed Nazi officer can be, but his kinetic moments
are mostly turned towards the defense of the German national
character, rather than to his immediate actions.
Valkyrie is competently made and
thoughtfully crafted; it has more in common with deliberately paced
caper pictures of old than The Usual Suspects. But as a
thriller—even a political thriller in which dialogue exchange is
the principal fireworks, and action is necessarily understated—can't
afford to be so flaccid. We're left knowing the bomb will fizzle, and
not even much concerned with the how or the when.