Movie- Valkyrie

I had heard some unfavorable reviews of Valkyrie (2008) when it hit theaters, and I am not a big Tom Cruise fan to begin with, so it was with a fair amount of caution that I watched Valkyrie, not expecting too much.

And it is good that I went in with low expectations, because that way, the movie did exceed them. The story is powerful and true, and the filming is really nicely done. It is about the close success of an assassination of Adolph Hitler and coup of his government...the closest anyone came to stopping the Nazi horror, before Hitler ended his own life and ended the dreams of the Third Reich.

A group of military officers were the driving force of this coup, and relied mostly on Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), a man loyal to Germany and the army, not necessarily to the Nazis or Hitler. He comes into the group of assassins as a hero of the Reich having been injured in Africa and losing an eye and part of a hand. But he sees the road Germany is going down, knows that they will lose the war, and cannot stand to see what it will have to endure because of the atrocities committed. So he joins, and eventually leads the cabal.

Now the story has some power, and like I said, it is suitably filmed, but it lacks something also. It seems to be lacking a tension that would be suitable. While glossy, it is not nitty gritty very much, and I think this is needed also. Cruise does not help this lack, because though he does an adequate job, he has no nit nor grit to him. Also lacking...the German language. It really seems like more authenticity could be had here by having this film in German, at least mostly.

Valkyrie exceeded my expectations, but my expectations were really low. I don't know if that is a good thing or bad, and feel much the same about this film.