[6]

Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects director and screenwriter, reunite for this true story of German officers conspiring from behind Nazi lines to kill Hitler. Tom Cruise doesn’t quite disappear into the role of real-life renegade Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, but the stellar supporting cast includes Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, and Eddie Izzard. The true story is a fascinating and important one, especially when considering the decades of time it took before Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were finally exonerated as traitors. Today Germany celebrates the ill-fated mutiny. The film takes place strictly in the past and has no bookends to frame the narrative or give it any historical perspective. I almost wish it did, because the documentary on the DVD is more compelling than the feature film.