Story of plot to kill Hitler is overdone

You'd think the story of the most famous plot to assassinate Hitler would be dramatic enough. You'd think the director would not have to pimp it up.

But the director of "Valkyrie" does not trust his material (though maybe that's because he read the script). So he ramps up the sense of urgency, choosing at every turn overdramatic camera angles, overdramatic lighting, overdramatic sound effects and -- this cannot be overstated -- overdramatic music.

"Valkyrie" isn't a drama, it's an overdrama.

The director is Bryan Singer, who is best known for making "X-Men" and "X-Men 2." It turns out that a guy who is most comfortable working in the field of comic-book movies might not be the best choice for re-creating and interpreting history.

Let us say that subtlety is not his forte.

(To be fair, Singer also made the excellent "The Usual Suspects." But that was a little hyped-up, too).

Tom Cruise stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, who lost a hand, an eye and three fingers while fighting in Africa. An officer but never a Nazi, he is recruited to an anti-Hitler conspiracy by a general played by Kenneth Branagh. The general is then called to the front and disappears from the movie, which may be historically accurate but is disappointing because Branagh is the best thing in the film.

So we're left with von Stauffenberg and the other conspirators, heroes all, but done disservice by this picture. We spend an hour and three quarters in their company, and we come out knowing next to nothing about any of them. All we learn about von Stauffenberg is that he loves his wife and, as played by the miscast Cruise, he speaks in a freaky calm voice.

The challenge in making a movie about a well-known historical event is that the audience already knows what is going to happen. In this particular case, the audience also knows the outcome (we don't want to give anything away, but there's a good chance Hitler will live almost until the end of the war).

Charged with the task of taking a well-known event with a foregone outcome and making it seem interesting to the audience are writers Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. They are not up to the challenge. Their characters speak in simplistic terms, lacking depth, complexity, doubt.

"I'm engaged in high treason with all means available to me. Can I count you in?" von Stauffenberg says to his new adjutant.

Singer's strenuous efforts to ratchet up the tension at all times does result in a couple of exciting sequences. One is an early assassination attempt (although we're pretty sure that one will fail, too). The other is an assembly of reserve forces. It isn't an important scene, but it is effective.

The people involved in the July 20 conspiracy acted out of passion. It's a pity none of that was transferred to this film.