Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Impressive recreation of period in this thriller about the July 20 plot to kill Hitler by a bunch of high ranking Nazi officers.  It’s an incredible story too.  But as a film it hardly set me on fire despite a great selection of top Brits in supporting roles.  Why?  Well, part of it has to do with Tom Cruise in the lead role who acts in a restrained way but just can’t pull off this sort of part.  He is too American and does nothing to hide his accents.  The homogenized non-Germanic nature of the supporting actors all using a variety of accents and styles is a mess compared to many films that have pulled off the accent issue (if Meryl can do it …). And in the end there is something leaden about the storytelling and something largely undramatic.  Good photography and music help save the show but I left this film wanting a good laugh and I am sure that was not intended.

* * +