Valkyrie' (PG-13)(out of four)

There's a scene in "Valkyrie" where Tom Cruise is wearing military fatigues in the middle of combat and spouting off some rhetoric about getting his men out of harm's way.

For a moment, it appears as if a scene from the 1986 film "Top Gun" somehow fell into the middle of a German war movie, circa 1942.

"Valkyrie" has plenty going for it, but Cruise as the headstrong Col. Claus von Stauffenberg is never quite able to convince the audience that he's hell-bent on killing Adolf Hitler. It doesn't matter, however, because the film is so well constructed and so extensive in its ability to capture the urgency and paranoia of the era that it could very well be one of the best movies of the year.

Cast off preconceived notions of Cruise (which was also a must-do for another good film starring Cruise, "The Last Samurai") and concentrate on the depth of the story and the brilliant attention to detail of director Bryan Singer.

Singer, who directed "The Usual Suspects," "X-Men, " and "Superman Returns," re-teams with his "Usual Suspects" screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to bring to life the story of the men who led the operation to assassinate Hitler. "Valkyrie" has the same stylish mystique of "Suspects" and a similar ability to intrigue.

Based on a true story, "Valkyrie" chronicles the plight of military man von Stauffenberg, who starts to grow impatient with the rapid movement of Hitler. Taking matters into his own hands, decides to use his position and know-how to recruit other high-level commanders in a plot to overthrow Hitler by using one of Fuhrer's own emergency plans.

"Operation Valkyrie" was an order that called for Germany's Reserve Army to take command of key government installations until order could be restored if Hitler were somehow unable to remain in power. By secretly altering the intricate plan, the German resistance hoped to assassinate Hitler and take Germany back from the Nazis by installing their own government in the ensuing chaos.

The overall atmosphere of Nazi Germany that Singer has re-created helps this film rise to its occasion. Singer, a self-proclaimed history buff with a personal interest in exploring the era of the Third Reich (remember the first "X-Men" concentration camp scene?), actually shot much of the film in Germany and had private meetings with members of the Stauffenberg family to bring legitimacy to the story.

Wisely, Singer chose not to force his actors into fake German accents. At the beginning of the movie we hear Cruise as von Stauffenberg speaking in German as he crafts a letter, but creatively the German segues to familiar speech. Many of the co-stars sport British accents, but it offers no distraction. A strong supporting cast helps move the film along and Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp and Bill Nighy as fellow German officers add the depth of struggle and soul searching that Cruise isn't able to muster.

"Valkyrie" could have been approached as a war movie, but instead it's a taut political thriller about a historical time with implications that resonate today. Singer's choice to keep the action real -- despite Cruise's inability to connect with the audience -- should make "Valkryie" a must-see even for those with no interest in world history.