Good German, The Review

"Good German, The" reviews

Movie

Good German, The

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-09-17 22:03:27

Rating

3/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

The Good German has star power, high style and plenty of complexities. This is why we go to the movies.

Story

German is the sort of classic war story. At the end of World War II, American troops come to Germany to start prosecuting Nazi war criminals. Patrick Tully (Tobey Maguire) is assigned to drive military journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) around. Tully seems like a nice enough guy, but when he starts asking for favors, his shady side comes out. He has a mistress, Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), who he wants to get out of the country before the trials start. Even though she's Jewish, she may have been involved in an atrocity or two. So desperate is Tully that he offers to give Geismer a night with Lena as payment. Geismer investigates to find out what the big deal about Lena is and uncovers more and more secrets on her side and his own military's side. Turns out Lena's husband is missing and both the Americans and Russians want a piece of him. Was he a good German? More importantly, is Geismer falling for the married mistress? There are lots of characters to keep straight but it's a solid mystery with plenty of thrills, and forbidden romance between some of Hollywood's best looking people.

Acting

Director Steven Soderbergh decided to make The Good German a throwback to the style of 1940s Hollywood. This means the actors had to adjust their modern sensibilities to the way actors acted back then. It's very theatrical and heightened, but everyone does a good job of maintaining their individually, not just mimicking an older art form. Maguire stands out the most, playing a really nasty guy for the first time in his career. Part of it is the script, which has him verbally and physically abusing his lover and others. But Maguire relishes Tully's bitter cynicism and violent streak in an electrifying way. Blanchett does a solid German accent and makes Lena a tragic survivor. She's practically a shell of a woman by the time the movie begins, revealing more and more of her pain as the mystery unfolds. We sympathize but do not pity as she seems as masterful as possible within the limited means available. Clooney plays kind of a sap. He's constantly taking a beating and always one step behind the plot. His Geismer is likeable because he's trying to do the right thing, and it's kind of a thrill to see a Hollywood leading man be so hopeless.

Direction

Soderbergh's aesthetic decision could have easily been a cliché, but he manages to use the device to successful effect. The opening old style Warner Brothers logo and squared off film frame immediately takes the audience back in time, while the backlot sets and film noir lighting instantly take us out of the present comfort zone. But we don't stay in the past for long. Characters use curse words, which was never allowed in the time of the Hayes code, but is certainly a realistic aspect of any war story. They also have sex, another no-no back in the day. This brings a sense of reality to the film rather than just harkening back to Hollywood's Golden Age. It's an experiment in style, but a compelling vision that carries us through an otherwise standard postwar mystery romance. In the year 2006, probably only devoted film geeks will even know what Soderbergh is doing here, but they will be rewarded for their knowledge of film history. Casual viewers may be put off by the style, but it would behoove them to give it a chance and experience a one of a kind movie.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 stars.

Movie

The Good German

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-03-08 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

Play it again, George. Not to be confused with "The Good Shepherd", "The Good German" is the latest film by Steven Soderbergh, who takes "Casablanca" as a template and explicitly recreates the style of a wartime noir thriller.

George Clooney stars as Jake Geismer, an American journalist who returns to Berlin in 1945 to cover the post-war Potsdam conference. Hoping to rekindle a romance with his former mistress Lena (Cate Blanchett), Jake is shocked and a little disgusted to find her shacked up with his cocky, motor-mouthed driver Corporal Tully (Tobey Maguire). However, when Tully turns up dead, Jake is drawn into a murder investigation and soon uncovers a web of corruption and conspiracy that involves the Germans, the Americans and the Russians.

On a purely technical level, "The Good German" is nothing short of astonishing. Soderbergh uses monochrome photography, sharp lighting, single camera set-ups, rear-projected backdrops and a vintage, Oscar nominated score (courtesy of Thomas Newman) in order to brilliantly recreate the feel of a 1940s film. In addition, the actors deliver performances in a markedly theatrical style, only without the Hayes Code restrictions. Unfortunately this backfires because, ironically, hearing the characters swear like troopers seems too modern-day and it takes you out of the film.

Blanchett is terrific, channelling Marlene Dietrich as easily as she channelled Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator", although Clooney's performance is curiously subdued - he barely even cracks a smile throughout. In addition, the confusing plot is rather unengaging and the film drags considerably in the middle section. Things pick up with a brilliantly orchestrated final sequence but the supposedly shocking resolution is something of an anti-climax.

Ultimately, this is worth seeing for its technical wizardry and for Blanchett's performance, but the overall result is disappointing because it could have been so much better.

Movie

The Good German

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-03-02 16:00:23

Provider

Review

George Clooney and Cate Blanchett go back in time in this tribute to 1940s Hollywood.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (who worked with Clooney on the Ocean's 11 trilogy), the mystery thriller is set in the ruins of post-World War II Berlin, and the grey ethics of the story are reflected by the black and white film.

It's 1945, and US army correspondent Jake Geismar (Clooney) has returned to Berlin to cover the upcoming Potsdam Peace Conference, where Allied leaders Stalin, Churchill and Truman met to determine the fate of Germany and newly liberated Europe.

But a chance meeting with his former lover Lena Brandt (Blanchett) throws Jake into a dark world. He discovers that Lena's missing husband - a Nazi SS officer - is the object of a manhunt by both the American and Russian armies, who are racing to recruit German scientists - irrespective of whether they're war criminals - in preparation for the looming Cold War.

Tobey Maguire is excellent as Corporal Tully, a soulless US soldier with his fingers in all the black market pies of Berlin, while Beau Bridges plays a US Colonel struggling with the vast task of bringing the Nazi war criminals to justice.

Blanchett's performance is wonderful, but her weary sexuality, husky German accent and amorality is more a Marlene Dietrich/Greta Garbo tribute than anything new. Clooney's indisputable talent is limited by a lumbering character, and his lack of chemistry with Blanchett makes their love affair unconvincing.

The cinematography is beautiful, a retro delight complete with lingering shots of cigarette smoke, bombed-out ruins and Blanchett's sultry silhouette. The elaborate plot deals with death camps, Nazi experiments, prostitution, black marketeering and a dying love affair: all weighty subjects, but the main problem is it's been done before - the script is hollow, and so lengthy it actually gets a bit boring.

Soderbergh's homage to film noir and wartime thrillers is captivated so much by its own style, it forgets what made those films great in the first place.