Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
Bryan Singer is god. Literally. He can bring a dead duck back to life with just one brush of his cinematic wand. But more so, he can bring movie stars – and superheroes – back! He breathed life into Alan Cumming and give him a career outside of teen comedies, revived Ian McKellen long enough to show him the road top superhero-ville, and, even revived Superman without having to chopper him off to the Fortress of Solitude! But can Singer reattach the liquefied parts of a Cruise Missile?
In ”Valkyrie”, Singer has Tom Cruise play an eye-patch wearing German that plots to assassinate Hitler. And he’s great. So great you’ll be convinced his brilliant but brief turn in Ben Stiller’s ”Tropic Thunder” (in which he fat-suited up to play a foul-mouth sweaty studio head who dances to hip-hop!) wasn’t a fluke. Seems Maverick is still Top Gun after all – you can take the piss out of the man, but you can’t take the talent.
Quite a departure from his previous films, Singer’s (”Superman Returns”, ”X-Men”) true-tale conspiracy thriller fixes on a group of conspirators, led by war-torn Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), who hatches a daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known – Adolf Hitler.
Stauffenburg had been a loyal soldier but after losing an eye, a hand, and three fingers in an Allied bombing, he cracks. He no longer wants to work for a leader that’s hell-bent on destruction. He joins the resistance movement — a treasonous act, punishable by death – in an effort to obliterate the nasty leader, overthrow the government and change history forever.
It isn’t Singer’s best film, nor is it Cruise’s best film, but ”Valkyrie” is a much better film than anyone expected from the duo at this point in their careers – especially the latter’s. This is a good solid and thrilling history-lesson with a terrific cast (Cruise is aptly supported by the likes of Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Wilkinson), some amazing production values, and a tight, engaging script (by  Singer’s “The Usual Suspects” screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and his writing partner Nathan Alexander).
It’s not without its flaws though. The film could’ve benefit from an extra half-hour or so. We don’t really get to know the characters – especially Cruise’s – as well as we could’ve, and that might’ve added a more sting to the film’s tail. Singer could also have more explored the motivations of the central figures in the plot, too – why do they want Hitler dead? We know why we want him dead, but why do they want him dead?
Some may also suggest that Cruise and his co-stars should’ve spoken German – and not English (To his merit, Singer kicks off the film with Cruise speaking in German before expediently having the actor make the changeover to English) and while that would’ve definitely made the film just that little bit more accurate, and believable, it would’ve probably deterred punters. Nobody wants to see Tom Cruise speaking German for two-hours. Could you imagine ”Mission : Impossible” fans buying a ticket to a subtitled Cruise picture? No, me either. It’s probably going to be difficult enough to convince folks to see the film anyway – it ain’t exactly your token Tom Cruise crowd-pleaser.
Cruise has taken on quite a few formidable villains in his career – Darkness, Guido the Pimp, Ice-Man, Col Nathan Jessup, er, Dougray Scott – but never one so menacing or convincingly ominous as Hitler. ”Valkyrie” is a brave and rewarding choice for the comeback kid – – but it isn’t the vehicle that’ll see his fans returning to cinemas in their droves just to catch a glimpse of those pearly whites again.
