The Good German [2007]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Despite its flaws, The Good German is a welcome gift for every film lover who laments that "they don't make 'em like they used to." Steven Soderbergh's affectionate, knowing tribute to the black-and-white melodramas of Hollywood's golden age may lack the emotional depth and romantic passion of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca--the 1946 classic it intentionally emulates--but as Soderbergh approximates Curtiz's studio style, he delivers a shimmering, shadowy reminder that movies can be enjoyed for the sheer pleasure of their craftsmanship. Once again serving as his own cinematographer (credited as "Peter Andrews"), Soderbergh went to great lengths to technically and aesthetically re-create the look and feel of a Curtiz production, and Joseph Kanon's source novel (adapted by Quiz Show screenwriter Paul Attanasio) provides a twisting plot set around the historical Potsdam conference in post-World War II Germany. An American military journalist, Capt. Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is in rubble-strewn Berlin to cover the event, and is quickly drawn into a murder plot involving his appointed driver (Tobey Maguire), an old flame-turned-wartime prostitute (Cate Blanchett) and her missing husband, a scientist who possesses pivotal secrets coveted by Americans and Russians in a pre-Cold War bid for power.

Violence, sexual content, and salty dialogue make it clear that this drama is a brashly contemporary homage to films of a bygone era, and not a slavish attempt to copy the past. This yields mixed results in terms of the film's overall appeal; it's gorgeous to look at, but the plot and performances exist in a vacuum, and the entire film feels oddly disengaged from any sense of genuine human emotion. It's probably fair to say that Soderbergh had more fun making the film than most people will have watching it. And yet, as Clooney's character is repeatedly beaten and deceived on his path to cynical enlightenment, The Good German has many qualities that make it recommendable, not the least being the pleasure of following a talented director as he indulges his penchant for bold experimentation. --Jeff Shannon

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Customer reviews

review by: moviebuff05 date: 2008-11-24 rating:
missed the mark by far
I was awfully disappointed by this film. I am a HUGE black and white movie fan and was looking forward to watching a film that had elements of one of my favourites - Casablanca entwined with modern day actors. How sad was I when I struggled to stay awake for the duration of the film because it was so dull. The story was very weak and the acting (with the exception of George Clooney) was not much better. One word. Avoid.

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review by: taxi driver date: 2008-11-24 rating:
Boring
The only thing i enjoyed about this film was watching my wife `wince` every time her dream loverboy George Clooney got beaten up.
Fortunatly he took several well deserved slaps during the course of this extremely boring film.

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review by: Jokull date: 2008-10-29 rating:
Casablancish in style not substance.
As a tribute movie it is very well made, in that it attempts to be of the same film noir style that now is long gone. It is very well shot in B/W with great play at light and shadows, the acting feels like it is on stage and it is a crime detecitve story.

Blanchet however is no Bergman, she is a great actress but vulnarable does not become her and this movie does not stand to good comparison to Casablanca. The characters in the Good German are rather simple and the political message is - well suffice to say it has been done some much better before that here it makes the story lame.

Even so it is an o.k. time to spend an hour and a half but hardly a keeper.

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review by: date: 2008-08-13 rating:
Brilliant photography, but a travesty of the book
It could be said in a single phrase - spend an evening reading the (excellent) book instead.

The film is all but incomprehensible. Worse, it coarsens/oversimplifies the many issues (let alone the nuances) explored so memorably in Kanon's book - in particular guilt, both personal and public. And this to a degree beyond what one would expect for a film of the book.

Its one strength (for which it merits perhaps two stars) is the way it conveys the atmosphere of Berlin in 1945, where survivors and victors alike scrabble through the wreckage, and does this with brilliant film noir photography; though in the end it lacks the clarity and sheer excitement of its model, 'The Third Man'.


review by: date: 2008-07-16 rating:
Glorious Technocolor
I've seen previous Clooney/Soderbergh collaborations and have been bemused. (I suspect I'm not clever enough to 'get' them). With this latest offering I have to ask why in an age of glorious, realistic and living technocolor, they made the film in Black and White. The film is so visually boring that I don't even care about the characters or the plot.

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