I guess it wasn't a matinee--more like a twi-nighter, as they say in baseball--but I caught a 5:15 showing of the new Bryan Singer film, Valkyrie. Despite a first-rate assemblage of British actors in support roles (e.g., Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Terence Stamp) this movie never found its groove, mostly due to the inadequacy of Tom Cruise as the lead. He simply lacks the gravitas to pull off this part; I kept thinking he was Lt. Kaffee in A Few Good Men--a role he actually did pull off quite convincingly. For a 46-year-old, Tommy-boy still has his youthful looks and vigor, but those qualities turned out to be distracting in this particular film. Cruise used to be able to disappear into meaty roles, such as in Born On The Fourth Of July, and I suppose he still can get away with action flicks with some credibility, but it's hard to consider him in a fully fleshed out adult dramatic role without thinking of him as Tom Cruise. He has anchored a string of cinematic duds the last few years, so one wonders if his reputation as "box office gold" is now a thing of the past.
