REEL CRITICS:

An intricate plot to kill Hitler was formulated by career German army officers in 1944. The conspiracy was led by the aristocratic Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg, who lost an eye and hand during combat in North Africa. The story is a complex and well-known piece of history. The audience knows the outcome.

But director Bryan Singer brings the tension and suspense he created in “The Usual Suspects” to “Valkyrie,” a tale of individual courage and human failings. Tom Cruise does a credible job playing the colonel with cool reserve. But it’s the great supporting actors who bring gravitas to the roles of the other conspirators.

Bill Nighy plays the nervous Gen. Friedrich Olbricht, who is in charge of the most important details of the operation. Kenneth Branagh is an officer who stays loyal to the mission. Tom Wilkinson is excellent as the ambivalent Gen. Friedrich Fromm who wants to make sure he has options left if the plot fails. The cinematography and production values are first-rate, recreating the look and feel of the late years of WWII. This might not be true Oscar material. But it’s a well-made and serious film that successfully portrays important events in the defining war of the modern world.

No ‘Doubt,’ ‘The Wrestler’ has ‘The Spirit’

John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation of his play “Doubt” has been marketed as Oscar bait with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hofmann as its stars. But what may have been enervating and profound on stage does not translate well under Shanley’s direction.

Streep is Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a nunzilla who suspects Father Brendan Flynn (Hoffman) may be giving inappropriate attentions to a 12-year-old schoolboy. Playing the middle is Amy Adams as the young nun, Sister James, who wavers (like the audience) in what she perceives as the truth.

Streep gives a repeat of her character in “The Devil Wears Prada” — the same mannerisms, only with lots of shouting. Hoffman tries to keep up with her, but it’s Viola Davis who steals everyone’s thunder in her brief but key role as the boy’s mother.

“The Spirit,” is another ode to comic book lore in this stylish bit of camp noir. It has the witty visual style of “Sin City” but a woefully muddled story. Nevertheless, it’s fun watching Eva Mendes (“shut up and bleed”) and Scarlett Johansson vamp it up. Samuel L. Jackson once again plays righteous crazy as the evil Octopus. Only Gabriel Macht, as the title character, seems unconvincingly hard-boiled as the womanizing ex-cop with a mysterious past. Even with the best line of the film, “I’m going to kill you all kinds of dead,” he’s about as tough as a broken fingernail.

Finally, a movie worthy of its hype is “The Wrestler,” a brutal, haunting story of a professional wrestler now past his prime. As Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an unrecognizable Mickey Rourke gives a bravura performance that is searingly honest and mirrors his own bad-boy life. “I’m a broken down piece of meat,” he confesses to his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), and we can feel his pain.

Randy’s story is complex, in the tradition of “Rocky,” but without the fanfare. You root for his survival even as you see this noble loser mess up his life yet again. Marisa Tomei is also excellent as the “aging” stripper who strikes up a wary friendship with Randy. There is a grace about them even in the midst of their pain.

JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.