"Cruise distractingly bad in 'Valkyrie'"

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:16pm

Shame. As much as I dislike Tom Cruise, I thought the film had some definite potential, but not according to a reviewer with the AP:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_en_ot/film_review_valkyrie_1

[clever name]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 3:29pm

He was distractingly bad in the 30 second ad I saw for this last night.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 4:18pm

His 'comebacks' are turning into disasters.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 10:23pm

This movie looked so potentially great based on the supporting cast and the director, and there sits Tom Cruise, ruining it all. I hope that critic is wrong, but my hopes aren't high.

[Taryn]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 10:59pm

Not very surprising. I enjoy Tom Cruise in certain roles, but he's been sticking out like a sore thumb in the trailers. The reviewer is right, he has a very strong sense of American modernity. It really is too bad for the rest of the cast, too, because they're all excellent actors.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 11:00pm

I've heared from a few people that it's not that bad.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:02am

I saw the trailer and thought, "Isn't he supposed to be playing a German? No accent at all...


WTF?

[Plum]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:09am

Actually, I think that's a great choice by Singer. Why do we need to show characters in U.S.-made movies are German by giving them German accents? They're wearing Nazi uniforms and planning to assassinate Hitler; I think that's a pretty clear indication of their nationality. No one's going to think they're American or English. Let the actors speak in their natural accents instead of struggling with German.

Within the world of the movie, everyone's speaking German - why would they speak German with German accents? It makes no sense. I think with movies like this you either do it this way or you do it fully in German. The weird in-between "accented English" option is just silly.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 5:47am

I think because the accents help the viewers get the sense of atmosphere. The accents they have while speaking English is supposed to mirror the style and mannerisms of what they would be saying in German...I mean if it's done right.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 6:32am

I think you can convey a sense of a foreign language even as your actors are speaking English with word choice and rhythm.

Or maybe I'm just tired of the sad spectacle of actors trying to put on European (or whatever) accents and not only failing miserably, but letting it constrain their acting.

Think of...Sunday in the Park With George. The characters in it are actually French, but no production forces the actors into French accents. We remember they're French because of their names and the Parisian setting, and it's fine. The British production even snuck in its own correlation between accent and class by making Dot sound northern while George was more RP. The world of the show in Act I is French, and so the French people don't have foreign accents - only the German servants and American tourists do.

Similarly, to themselves, the characters in Valkyrie don't have foreign accents. Does that make sense? They're speaking in their natural accents to each other - it just so happens that we're listening in English.

Of course, Cruise sours the concept even there because he's the only American in a cast of Brits.
Updated On: 12/23/08 at 06:32 AM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 6:57am

"Within the world of the movie, everyone's speaking German - why would they speak German with German accents? "

Why WOULDN'T they have a German accent if everyone around them is speaking in German.

To me, it makes me wonder, 'Was the guy German? British? American?'

It's more distracting to me to not have an accent.

[LaurenB]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 8:01am

I think I'm more distracted by a bad accent.

I think another (more versatile) American, with an American accent, might have fared better against that absolutely tremendous British supporting cast. Though, at the moment I can't think of one, LOL. I haven't seen the film yet, so I can't speak to what Tom is doing. But it's not hard to believe that he may be miscast. He seems to do the best in roles that are contemporary (though he was decent in The Last Samurai). It reminds me of watching John Wayne play Genghis Khan. Gosh, that was painful.

If I'm watching Hamlet, I don't expect to hear Danish accents. Same thing with Romeo and Juliet, I don't expect to hear Italian accents. I'm not bothered if watching a film that takes place in a foreign country, and the cast speaks English without a foreign accent. As long as they are good. It reminds me of a recent production of Casanova shown on PBS with David Tennant in the starring role, and Peter O'Toole playing the older Casanova. I'm glad they didn't adopt Italian accents.

Speaking of which, I know I must be in the minority, but I was really annoyed with Paul Giamatti's performance in John Adams. It was an overall very good performance, granted, but still, I could not get past his affectation. I remember watching Meryl Streep's earlier performances when she would be doing her accents and you never give it a moment's thought, because it came across as so natural.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 9:50am

Why WOULDN'T they have a German accent if everyone around them is speaking in German.

I obviously wasn't explaining myself very well - sorry about that.

Okay, here is my reasoning:

1. The characters in this movie are speaking their native German in their natural accents, as a matter of historical fact.
2. The actors in this movie are speaking their native language of English.
3. Therefore, I think it makes sense for the actors to speak in their native accents. Does that make sense? The actors should be like their characters - both speaking their native tongue in their native accent, whether that tongue or accent is English or German.


There seems to be some historical boundary (or fictionality boundary) beyond TV and cinema can let go of its ridiculous accent habit - Shakespeare, the Tennant Casanova, and Sunday in the Park With George are...maybe "sufficiently removed from reality" is the right phrase - anyway, they're unreal enough that actors are allowed to keep their natural accents instead of trying for the dubious "authenticity" of a European accent of some kind.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:03am

"Why do we need to show characters in U.S.-made movies are German by giving them German accents?"

Because it would end Meryl Streep's acting career.

Why didn't Vivien Leigh keep her British accent in "Gone With The Wind?"

I think as the craft of acting grew, there was a need to speak in the same patterns as the character. Acting moved from representing a person to actually being the person.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:21am

"Why didn't Vivien Leigh keep her British accent in "Gone With The Wind?" "

Clark Gable refused to use an accent as southerner Rhett Butler. He's the only southern character in the movie who doesn't.

I remember when it bugged audiences in "Amadeus" that the leading actors in this 18th century period piece weren't using accents. They sounded so American. People had come to expect British accents with all period dramas. Regardless of origin.

Kinda like expecting everyone who comes out of a store in a movie carrying a brown paper bag to have a loaf of French bread sticking out of the top to indicate to the audience that there are groceries in there.

Kinda like everyone who enters a room at night alone in a Horror movie will never turn a light on.

Kinda like the outdoor streets at night are always wet in every movie, even when it hasn't been raining.

There are a lot of strange film conventions when you stop to think about it.

Updated On: 12/23/08 at 10:21 AM

[nygrl232]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:31am

A guy can get hit pretty hard many times in a movie brawl and not show any evidence that it hurts, but when a woman is cleaning his wounds afterwards with a cotton ball, he winces.

Got OT there. Um, Tom Cruise suzx.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:36am

Kinda like when someone carries a suitcase in a movie it's never heavy. (Maybe they had lighter clothes in black and white).

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 11:16am

Why didn't Vivien Leigh keep her British accent in "Gone With The Wind?

Because her native tongue and Scarlett's native tongue were both English.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 11:27am

It's funny when we expect an accent and when we don't. We'd fall out of our seats laughing if, as someone mentioned, Romeo and Juliet spoke with Italian accents.

But Americans are used to hearing Germans sound like Werner Klemperer largely because our movies have a history of Nazi bad guys vs. American and British good guys. We expect the distinction.

I imagine the issue with "Valkyrie" is that if everyone is German, presumably speaking German, they wouldn't have accents. For me the larger issue has always been inconsistent accents: If German Tom Cruise sounds American, then German Kenneth Branagh shouldn't sound British (or vice versa).

For example, I've yet to understand why Bob Gunton has an accent in "Evita" when no one else does (since they're all meant to be speaking Spanish).

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 11:34am

For example, I've yet to understand why Bob Gunton has an accent in "Evita" when no one else does (since they're all meant to be speaking Spanish).

Me too!

[Taryn]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 11:54am

A guy can get hit pretty hard many times in a movie brawl and not show any evidence that it hurts, but when a woman is cleaning his wounds afterwards with a cotton ball, he winces.

You could possibly explain that in terms of an adrenalin rush, which dramatically decreases the sensation of pain.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:03pm

MGM believes in the movie.
Link

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:03pm

... or in the shot right after that one, where the wounds disappear entirely.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:05pm

He's starting to scare me way more than Michael Jackson. And that's saying a lot.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 12:09pm

I don't know why Cruise and MGM are betting so heavily on this movie. As if it would cure all financial and career woes.

Did they think a Nazi drama is what the world needed right now?

Really?

Even a really GOOD one like Schindler's List pulled in something like four dollars.

Updated On: 12/23/08 at 12:09 PM