Valkyrie a Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing. (Spoiler alert, if you can call it that)

Most everyone knows Hitler committed suicide in 1945 while the Allied forces were marching towards Germany. Fewer know of the no less than 15 attempts on Hitler’s life performed by “righteous” members of Germany’s Nazi party. Bryan Singer’s (Usual Suspects, Superman Returns) Valkyrie depicts the rise and fall of one such attempt: from the recruiting of upstanding men, to the formation of the plot, to the eventual quieting of the overthrow…

I somewhat apologize for the spoiler there but now is as good a time as any to discuss my opinion on making a historical suspense movie. Based on true events, this story takes the audience on a suspense ride to assassinate a man who everyone knows dies a year later. This fact is more than common knowledge so I must ask, Do the film makers want us to just put that idea aside for the duration of the film? Or do they actually think we don’t know our WWII history? What is it? I talked to a few people after watching and I told them that I was a little confused about seeing a movie where I know the outcome going in; they all jumped exactly to the movie that first popped in my head as well: Titanic. I think this is different though. That movie used the sinking of the Titanic as the occasion to showcase a tragic love story, the movie wasn’t really about the sinking of the ship. Valkyrie is a suspense thriller about the failed execution of an assassination plot. We know it fails because they chose the most famous man in modern history as the subject of the movie. Fear of unknown events creates suspense. We shriek in horror movies because we are never quite sure when the monster is going to pop out. How much suspense can a film create when the audience knows the protagonists are going to fail before the opening credits ever roll?

So while I was sitting in the theatre I kept asking myself, “Ok, would this be suspensful/thrilling/scary if I didn’t know that it was going to fail?” Maybe, but I doubt that is the question the movie producers want their audience asking so they must just assume we are going to suspend our disbelief right? Harder than it sounds.

Aside from lacking in genuine suspense the movie is just OK. No one uses a common accent. Everyone speaks in English and writes in German. All very distracting. I want to think that it was almost like a really good episode of the Mission: Impossible TV series. They get their mission, conduct it, and wrap it all up in a short period. They never really slowed down enough for character development or took the time to show us around Nazi Germany. I think the actors could have simply changed their costumes and it would have been a different movie. If they were wearing Storm Trooper outfits I probably would have thought they wanted to kill Darth Vador. They never once try and whisper to avoid being overheard discussing “the plan.” I mean, at least lower the Cone of Silence! Their actions are too much like every other suspense movie and not specific or detailed enough to be believable in WWII Berlin.

Most of the supporting cast delivered nice performances but Tom disappointed me. You put lipstick on a big, it’s still a big. I guess if you but an eye patch on Tom Cruise, he’s still Tom Cruise. I usually defend him because I think, at times, he can surprise you with nice character work but here he reverted back to the blockbuster deliveries and movements that have made him a star but held him back from Oscar status. This only adds to my thought that the movie is almost too general. The movie focuses too much on Tom, I’m sorry Cruise’s character, and ignores all the others needed to make this plan succeed.

At times my heart did speed up a little and I was interested in how they were going to make this work (again, after I let myself forget that they are going to fail). It was also fun to see a different side of Nazi Germany; a side where people wanted to stand up to Hitler and fight to change their country for the better. That is why this movie would probably work much better as a History Channel special. If you take away the Hollywood suspense and big name actors to distract you, you actually have a very moving story to tell. Making it something more than it is almost does injustice to the men and women who risked their lives to try remove this dictator.

Valkyrie will thrill you if you let it, but don’t set your expectations too high.

Slumdog Millionaire Your Best Bet This Holiday

Imagine the pressure of playing a game show for a million dollars… Got it? Ok, now add the hopes and dreams of your entire country whose eyes are glued to the nearest TV set watching every move you make; tack on the police who have arrested you under suspicion of cheating; sprinkle on the fact that the woman you have loved since you were 5 has been stolen from you… Oh, did I mention you are 18 and grew up in the Slums of India? How do you think you’d do?

Slumdog Millionarire, Danny Boyle’s latest creation (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Trainspotting), brings this exact story to the big screen. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) has one question to go as a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire but has been taken into custody to prove he honestly knew the answers. The investigation becomes the frame for detailing Jamal’s brutal, passionate, confusing, and true story growing up as an orphan in India. The police investigator (Irrfan Khan, The Namesake) plays back each trivia question and demands justification for Jamal’s knowledge of each subject. What could have turned into a very boring and predictable story-telling device, Boyle handles very delicately and artistically. Each question’s back story has its own vignette with an individual style, feel, and pace. (Think Paris Je T’aime meets Traffic.) The flashes build to construct a solid history of Jamal’s process from losing his mother at a very young age to possibly becoming one of the wealthiest and most popular men in India. Sounds cheesy, I know, but since Boyle handles each one carefully and with equal attention he never loses the audience. The pace fluctuates, yes, but never stalls.

Slumdog allows the skill of very talented, but lesser-known actors, to do the talking for it (like only a foreign film could; this film could never be made in Hollywood, and is probably better because of it). Children become the stars for the first half of the film and might be the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the piece. Aside from kids looking cute and adorable with everything they do, this film captures an honesty and reality in young characters that we rarely see. Since we believe the characters and their relationships from a young age the transition to their adulthood is a seamless and non distracting one.

The music and soundtrack, edited by Niv Adiri and created by AR Rahman, told its own story, complimented the plot, and masterfully kept the energy alive the entire run (literally and figuratively since much of the first half of the movie involves our young protagonists being chased through the crowded city streets). The energetic and always active shots, as well as Antony Dod Mantle’s dark, rugged, yet honest cinematography (the shot of a man drowning in a bathtub of money comes to mind), make it hard to look away from the sometimes horrific but always beautiful story being told.

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of one man’s literal struggle for survival and quest for love in a cruel world that has given him nothing. The success of this movie comes from the fact that it simply tells the story and tells it well, using all the tools of modern filmmaking. I like to be reminded that good stories and beautiful film work still have a place in our diluted cinema world. And I didn’t even see Regis Philbin once…