Tom Cruise Wasn't Bad in "Valkyrie"

The major motion picture Valkyrie, about the last of fifteen known "internal" assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler in World War II Germany, stars Tom Cruise as a disaffected Nazi officer.

Critics were generally unkind to Tom Cruise, with one review for the Associated Press calling Cruise's performance in the film "distractingly bad." I didn't find it to be distractingly bad-if anything, it was more interesting than many of Cruise's recent roles, with the exception of his cameo as a hip-hop obsessed studio executive in Tropic Thunder.

I think, though, that Cruise was an unusual casting choice for Valkyrie. The role called for, at least in my opinion, someone who looks a little rougher and meaner in a savvy way-maybe Clive Owen or Daniel Craig would have been my first picks if I were the casting director.

Cruise is just too put-together in the film; even after losing a hand, several fingers, and his right eye, Cruise still appears too clean and presentable to be the disaffected, ambitious, and idealistic leader the role calls for.

With this said, I found the film entertaining and liked his performance a lot. He can't help which movies he is cast in.

Also, I found the film's frequent use of dialogue in place of action to be a misstep. Valkyrie was marketed in trailers as a popcorn action flick, but what I saw instead was a semi-documentary with way too much pontificating and not enough suspense. (Of course, I suppose we know what happens anyway. But a great film should be able to overcome this problem.)

I found the cinematography, however, to be excellent. The scenes of Hitler's "Wolf's Lair" in the German forest were well shot, and Hitler himself was shot at unusual angles, rarely focusing on his face-instead, shots focused on his hands as he signed a document, his back side as he petted his dog, and so forth. The effect distances us from Hitler and makes him seem threatening, unpredictable, and unequivocally evil in every scene he is in.

The role of Cruise's character's quasi-friend in the film, a communications officer critical to the Valkyrie assassination plan, could have been better played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, I felt. Other than that, though, most of the casting choices seemed all right.

Overall, I would give the film a seven out of ten. Needed to have more action and less talk, but still entertaining.