Courtesy of MGM

Eyepatches Wide Shut | Tom Cruise is the one-eyed would-be Hitler-killer Claus von Stauffenberg in Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie.

Valkyrie

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VALKYRIE
Directed by Bryan Singer. Starring Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terrence Stamp. Opens Thu, Dec 25.
***1/2

’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring — except for a secret cadre of high-ranking German military officers planning to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the height of the Second World War, thus destroying the Nazi party and ending their atrocities months before the Allies had to.

Director Bryan Singer takes a break from Kryptonians and X-Mutants to bring us Valkyrie, the true story of the plot (the last of 15) to kill Hitler, masterminded by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), a proud German officer who finds himself blown apart after a futile battle on the African front.

Half the man he was and with a hate-on for Hitler, von Stauffenberg joins a resistance movement of army officials and politicians who are tired of watching Hitler and his Nazis lead their country and all of Europe into ruin. The plan is to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government from the inside. Von Stauffenberg draws the short straw and is thrust into taking out the Big H himself. Needless to say, it does not go well. (It’s quite compelling to watch the conspirators flip-flop on which side to stand once Hitler proves impossible to kill and Operation Valkyrie begins to dissolve.)

I appreciated Cruise’s toned-down performance, which allows Valkyrie to spin an intricate web of conspiracy rather than turn into a Tom Cruise star vehicle. Oh sure, he might top the marquee, but his portrayal of the dishonoured-yet-honourable von Stauffenberg is just one element of a larger whole.

In fact, Singer takes every available opportunity to “ug” Cruise up (as if putting him in a Nazi uniform wasn’t enough) by blowing off an arm, half a hand and an eye all within the film’s first 10 minutes. This gives Cruise little choice but to take a vacation from Pretty-Boy Land and blend, fairly seamlessly, into the ranks of Valkyrie’s amazingly talented ensemble cast. Sharing screen time with a veritable character actor master-class that includes Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Kenneth Branagh, Cruise has little choice but to stand in the corner and quietly seethe — which, luckily, he does very well.

My big complaint with Valkyrie was that it spends so little time on the other characters’ desperate motives for eliminating Hitler. We in the audience know why we want to see the little bastard popped, but why do these loyal German soldiers? I get von Stauffenberg’s rationale — he’s essentially a disgruntled employee who sees the writing on the wall — but what about Operation Valkyrie’s other planners? The lack of information muddles up an otherwise tight thriller, one so detailed that it often seems more like a historical re-enactment than an action thriller.

Still, Valkyrie is a standout thriller filled with flawed heroes, catastrophic missteps, and a fascinating “what-if” scenario that will stick with you as you snuggle in for your long winter’s nap.