Cruise used to make all of his clothes look great and simply a part of whatever flesh and blood man he was playing, even when it was only a pair of tight, white underpants. But in Valkerye, you see several red-blooded men in a room all wearing the uniform of Nazi Officials. These amazing character actors (Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson & Kenneth Branagh) each embody a man who is struggling with the ideas of the Nazi party and the imminent demise of the German army. And whenever Cruise is among them he seems like a guy in a costume, intently listening to what these officers have to say.
Can Tom Cruise into Middle Age?
As a male megastar ages, he has many roads to chose from and Tom Cruise has not selected his path yet. He would be well rewarded to take a look at Harrison Ford’s career. He, too, tumbled onto the screen a star with a high wattage smile and a face and body worth spending two hours with. Ford found himself the true blue hero with a sense of humor about himself. Remember Working Girl? Ford was comic genius as a guy who was fast losing hold of the tail he once held the world by. He was gob smacked by a woman that was near perfection, played by Melanie Griffith in her naughty-angel prime. Ford went on to play flawed, greedy, heroic and mesmerizing characters. And every costume he wears looks like he just took it fresh from his closet.
Cruise has been to the well of genius and he, no doubt, would like to find a way back. What about doing anything and everything with Paul Thomas Anderson, who helped Cruise deliver his most frighteningly real character, that of a woman hating sex advisor who has daddy issues and sports a cute little updo. In that film, Magnolia, Cruise was masterful at longing and losing and fighting hard to hide the anger and sadness within. It was genius.
A Brilliant Performance Can Be Comedy Too
As was his turn in Tropic Thunder. Perhaps Ben Stiller gave him the freedom to let go and make himself a fat, sweaty, dancing fool who takes no crap from anyone. He’ll negotiate with terrorists and criminals, just as long as he comes out ahead.
But in Valkrye, we have a stone-like Cruise who puts on a uniform and stands around looking nervous while he switches a endless number of suitcases with bombs. But at no time do we see a man desperate to save a nation. And what about Hitler? Part of the film’s problem is that we know what is to come and know it changed nothing.
Cruise practically winces as he says, “Heil Hitler”. Wouldn’t Von Stauffenberg have said that phrase a hundred times and not made such a drama about it? The colonel was amazingly brave and sadly unsuccessful, but he was still a Nazi. If Tom Cruise wanted to play a Nazi, did it have to be the bravest, boldest Nazi with the most photogenic family ever?
Here's hoping the answer is yes since Cruise has not found a way to laugh at himself in a major role or to risk being less than a hero. What he should try next is to be a red blooded man, warts and all, who inhabits anything he wears
