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From the day Tom Cruise put on his eye patch, squeezed into a pair of knee-high jackboots and started working on his Nazi goose-step, pundits have been queuing to declare the World War II thriller Valkyrie the most reckless gamble of his career.
The US$90 million ($164 million)
film, a portrayal of the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler, in which Cruise plays the failed assassin Claus von Stauffenberg, has been dogged by an almost comic array of problems since its inception two-and-a-half years ago. Politicians tried to block filming in Germany. Relatives of Von Stauffenberg expressed disapproval at Cruise's links to Scientology. A team of extras was injured during production and launched a NZ$20 million lawsuit. Major scenes needed to be reshot and the release date was changed more than three times. This week, the film's trailer hits US cinemas. And as billboards began popping up around Los Angeles announcing its Boxing Day release, a new and even more shocking revelation began doing the rounds in Hollywood: against all the odds, Valkyrie may actually turn out to be rather good.
Last weekend, in cheerful defiance of the wildfires that gridlocked much of southern California, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held its first press screenings of the film, which co-stars Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Izzard. The result was a double triumph. Not only were the handful of industry reporters present able to scotch dark rumours about Cruise's German accent (he does not attempt one), they also gave the film almost shockingly positive reviews. "All the buzz is that it's pretty good," said Variety's executive editor, Steven Gaydos. "Von Stauffenberg is not a typical role for Cruise, but in the event, he is a terrific actor who has surrounded himself with some of the most talented people around."
Valkyrie has been test-screening since August and is now said to be receiving 80 per cent positive responses from audiences, a surprisingly decent figure for the tale of a one-armed, one-eyed colonel who was killed for attempting to assassinate Hitler with a briefcase bomb. Buoyed by the reaction, MGM decided to fast-forward and go for the highly competitive holiday release date in the US until recently it was scheduled to launch on Valentine's weekend. (It's out in New Zealand on February 5.) This means it will clash with new films from Jim Carrey and Brad Pitt but gives it an outside chance of Oscar nominations.
For both Cruise and the studio, any such result would represent an extraordinary comeback and a critical test of both of their futures. MGM plans to invest NZ$109 million in marketing the film and is in dire need of a major hit. The firm has been struggling in the credit-crunched economy to raise NZ$1.18 billion to finance its next major slate of films, which include two instalments of The Hobbit and the next James Bond film. Its only major successes in recent years have been the past two Bond films. For Cruise, the stakes are also high. Despite being at the top of the Hollywood tree for a quarter of a century, his private life has become a magnet for negative publicity, thanks mostly to his association with Scientology. More pressingly, Cruise has not had a major hit since Mission Impossible III in 2006. The fate of Valkyrie is not just critical to his acting career. It will also have a major impact on his standing as a film producer.
Pundits say if it is a hit it could help define the rest of Cruise's career, which, as he approaches his 47th birthday, needs a change from its stock-in-trade of boyish action heroes. "Tom Cruise has managed 25 years as one of the biggest stars in the world but, as his recent cameos have suggested, here is a man pushing 50," said Steven Gaydos. "For the next 25 years, he needs to find more mature roles."
Despite all the problems that have dogged Valkyrie, in Claus von Stauffenberg, Cruise may have stumbled on the perfect alter ego to achieve just that.
- INDEPENDENT