Tom Cruise in Valkyrie

You go in expecting a historical thriller and you get a movie that seems entirely focused on Tom Cruise, its star.  And that's the problem.  A Hollywood star is dropped in the middle of a serious war thriller with an expert cast of British theatrical types.  They decided not to try to harmonize accents, either. 

On the one hand, it seems an expertly made historical film, based on real events, with authentic settings and a fine script.  On the other, Tom is the center of attention and on screen almost the entire time, and I agree with the NY Times critic for once -- he really doesn't fit in.  It's not anything he does wrong.  I think he plays the part well.  There is just a sort of disconnect between Cruise and everybody else.  He's the jaunty Yank and they are the theatrical Brits.  Maybe any attempt for them all to do German accents would have seemed fake, I don't know...

I've seen the trailor for "Defiance" so many times now... there it seems we have Brit and American actors impersonating Polish Jews, and they all put on accents together - which harmonizes the Brits and the Yanks to seem like they could plausibly be brother raised in the same place and time...  I guess that's a critical decision the filmmaker makes, and they made it wrong for Valkyrie.  Nonetheless, the picture is quite watchable.

Comments

[caprice]

I was hungering for the pre-story. How did the conspiracy start? How was Stauffenberg brought in?

[Art Leonard]

This was a definite weakness of the movie. I went on-line when I got home and read about the entire history of the plot and von Stauffenberg's part in it. It is a complicated story, and I think it is unfortunate that the film could barely suggest any of it.