Tom Cruise abandons his Germanic accent in the opening minutes of “Valkyrie.”
He would have been better off brushing up on his British accent instead.
Director Bryan Singer (“Superman Returns”) surrounds our favorite couch jumper with British actors to recreate an amazing chapter in German history.
It’s one thing to let a star like Cruise forgo an accent. But why confuse matters by fleshing out the cast with other non-German actors?
Had “Valkyrie” transfixed us as planned, none of this would matter. But its first half is a yawn, a plodding construct which only keeps our interest thanks to Cruise’s still palpable star power.
“Valkyrie” tells the true story of the most famous attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life. We’re deposited in Nazi Germany at the height of World War II, and a few German officers are starting to realize what a madman Hitler is. He just might bring down Germany unless something is done – and fast.
So Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) spearheads an effort to take Hitler out. But to do so he’ll have to forge some delicate alliances and keep every part of his plan top secret.
“Valkyrie” caught heavy flak over the past year for its revolving release dates and withering buzz over re-shoots. The finished product is far from the disaster you might expect. It’s handsomely shot with a terrific supporting cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branaugh and Bill Nighy.
But Cruise’s character just doesn’t inspire us as he should, and the blame goes directly toward screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. Their tale includes a few tense moments, but we remain emotionally detached from both the conspiring Colonel and the rest of his allies.
Yet watching Cruise’s colonel recover from wounds suffered in the film’s early combat sequence reminds us why he rose to the upper echelon of modern movie stars.
“Valkyrie” stirs to life in the final half hour as the intricate plan starts coming together. But the stakes remain shockingly low given the enormity of their mission.
Cruise’s latest should stop the actor’s career free fall, but it’s hardly the vehicle to thrust him back in Hollywood’s good graces – or ours.
(Photo: Lookout, Tom! There’s an Allied plan right behind you! Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in the new suspense thriller “Valkyrie.”)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
So, does Tom Cruise’s on for a second, off for the remainder of the movie accent enter the Pantheon of such silliness — defined by Kevin Costner in “Robin Hood: Prince of Theves,” or Halle Berry’s hilarious abandonment of a Jamaican/African accent in “X-Men”?
Isn’t it better of HUGE American movie stars just be themselves and ditch the accent pose? We go to see Tom Cruise because he’s Tom Cruise and expect him to be him (except in his excellent turn in Tropic Thunder). Right?
My fuzzy memory recalls “Valkyrie” trailers with Cruise attempting an accent … but in the film he doesn’t even try. Which is ok … just odd in the grand scheme of things. Is a German accent so hard? Isn’t he a professional actor?
My fuzzy memory recalls Tom Cruise doing his “Tom Cruise intense drama accent” in the TV trailers.
You’re right. A German accent ain’t so hard. But Tom Cruise is such an established American movie star, that it would be distracting to hear him attempting a German accent throughout the movie. It’s just different for Hollywood SuperStars. I don’t get distracted when Cate Blanchette or Tom Wilkinson do accents — probably because it’s so easy (apparently) for British/Australian actors to affect an American accent in their performances (see Laurie, Hugh: House). I even get distracted watching Meryl Streep do her accent shtick. I know she’s American. I can enjoy her performance just fine as she is. (The only exception is minor Hollywood stars doing British accents. That’s the only non-distracting accent.) For the record, my wife (at my side as I write this, disagrees. She says: “You’re a professional actor. Do the proper accent. I for one would want to see an American do an accent of another language.”)
By the way, Tom Cruise now owns United Artists, so he can do whatever he wants.
IIRR, there was a production decision to eschew German accents (except, of course, for Thomas Kretschmer, who is German…and, it seemed to me, that the voiceover in German when Stauffenberg is writing in his diary, was done by a different actor…when Cruise’s voiceover in English took over, the voice and a rather different timbre…
I reread the chapter on the July 20 plot in Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I got home…plotwise, the fimmakers hewed pretty close to the course of events, making necessary simplifications to keep the story filmable…they left out the complex negotiations between the plotters and von Kluge and Rommel, for instance…and they allowed the plotters more temporary success with their coup than actually happened…but they showed how quickly things fell apart once it was learned Hitler survived the blast.
All in all, though, the writing didn’t get across the kind of magnetic personality and erudition possessed by Stauffenberg, and a number of very close calls that the plotters had in the run-up to July 20, which would have heightened the tension level. I feel that it’s worth a watch, but it’s not a film I would own.
Brian — great comments. Those insights help bring the film into better focus.
Hey, if they let go of European actors, then that’s fine, actually a plus point for me. I don’t see why Americans should be so scurpulous of European mores, when the Euros don’t even return the favour. When Britishers make American movies, they don’t cast American actors. Apart from a rare Hugh Laurie, they don’t even try to fake an American accent( eg: All the King’s Men). Americans should repay the favour by casting only Americans in any movie set in Europe.