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Rating:  -
The cast is great, the look is right, the story complex and full of intrigue...so what went wrong? Hard to pinpoint, but it was just flat. First off, the music score stunk. It was intrusive and, except in a few spots, it was mostly inappropriate. And the out-of-step music seemed to me to echo the slightly off-step pace and delivery of the film. Even though it looked great, it wasn't so much an homage as a film school exercise. It tried to re-do and update a look and sensibility that is locked forever in the romantic bubble of its own time. The addition of franker sex and language, while more suited to our times, presented a dissonance to the overall scheme of the film, illustrating the difficulty of trying to re-imagine the romance of the 40's wartime dramas for our own, more divisive and cynical age. It ended up an ungainly mix of Casablanca romance and Third Man disillusion.
That said, it was a worthy attempt, and I applaud the effort to try to do something different. It held my interest, and I very much liked the performances, especially Cate Blanchett and Robin Wiegert. Clooney and Maguire were okay, and it was an interesting story. But you never really felt a true connection between the characters. At any rate, this was director Soderbergh's showcase, and I hope he will continue his chance-taking efforts. This one didn't quite come off, but he took a healthy cut at it, and it is worth a look.
Rating:  -
I worry about director Steven Soderbergh. He's trying too hard to come up with "something different." New gimmicks do not a great film make. He's done phenomenal work in the past, including TRAFFIC and The OCEAN'S resurgence (i.e., OCEAN'S ELEVEN, etc.). These are straightforward stories with characters we can grasp, laugh at, or worry about. But then he stretches too far and comes up with EROS, SOLARIS (which wasn't too bad), and the bottom rung BUBBLE.
Attempting to capture some of that ancient Hollywood gold, Soderbergh puts up THE GOOD GERMAN, a black and white feature in the vein of CASABLANCA. But any resemblance to the former film ends with the lack of technicolor. Given a chop-shop style script, the success of the movie hung on the uncharacteristic style more than the acting, dialogue, or story. The unfortunate part about it is that it doesn't utilize the compelling narrative in which the film is based upon, the novel by Joseph Kanon.
The Good German, that term, is meant to denote a German who may have had ties to Nazi-ism but who's record was cleaned up (on paper) so that they could be exported from the country without the threat of being accused of war crimes. Never did this essential element come through on film. What did, though, was a mish-mash of scenes that seemed strung together without regard to story-flow nor character portrayal. We never care for -- or understand the motivations of -- any of these people.
The star is George Clooney (GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK) as Jacob "Jake" Geismer, a journalist sent to Berlin for the post-WWII Potsdam conference. Once there, we quickly learn that he's been here before. In fact, he was involved with a lovely (but married) German named Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett, BABEL). Lena is now involved with Corporal Patrick Tully (Tobey Maguire, THE ICE STORM) who also happens to be Jake's back-stabbing driver. Is this all coincidence? Jake soon finds out that Lena's supposedly dead husband may have important documents those at the Potsdam conference want to keep quiet (i.e., destroy). When Tully turns up dead, the heat hits Jake full-on, sparking up his naturally inquisitive journalist mind. Everyone has an agenda and wants something from each other.
And that's about it...
The looping of intrigue is nothing new to cinema, but it can be done correctly if the acting and story are entertaining. You won't find that here. The characters/actors are wooden at best, which is quite a surprise considering the high-caliber cast. Lacking this, one would hope to find a pearl of success somewhere within the script. Not so. Again, it has a haphazard feel with poor fluidity.
In the end, it is the filming technique and in-you-face style that stands out over anything of substance. If you really want to know what a Good German is, read Kanon's novel and skip Soderbergh's interpretation.
Rating:  -
George Clooney and Cate Blanchett headline in this hard-hitting, rough-edged homage to WWII-era war films and postwar film noir. The film is shot in black-and-white and both borrows from and defies the cinematographic conventions of the time: the shadows are well-defined, the actors are boldly marked with strong key lights, yet the whites and lighter sections are often flared out and hazy, more like the wartime newsreels, which were shot on the fly rather than on some Hollywood set. This is a good metaphor for the film as well: it's difficult to see the light amid the darkness and grime of a decimated Berlin. Director Stephen Soderberg pays homage to many classic films -- "Casablanca," "The Third Man," et.al. -- but he also make use of the documentary feel of Frank Capra's wartime training films and the desolate, grainy footage of the liberation period. The story is unremittingly dark and cynical, as Clooney's optimistic tough-guy hero is repeatedly pummeled both by Spillane/Chandler goons and by the force of history, the optimism of prewar America is battered as well... This film is bleak, but substantive, and also an engaging, clever treat for film buffs. Definitely worth checking out!
Rating: -
Film Noir this is not. The B&W "newsreel" effect, with extreme highlighting and no middle tones, is annoying. Same thing with the sound or audio mix which is hollow and again, annoying to the viewer.
Actually, a terrific storyline. Post WW2 trauma in Berlin. The good, bad, and ugly, re-visited during Potsdam.
The plot is not so much weak as it is mis-directed with a final that screams for additional footage.
Jack Thompson, who stole the show in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", is totally wasted. George Clooney does not do well playing it weak. However, Cate Blanchett does a pretty good Ingrid Bergman.
Production Design by Phillip Messina is excellent. You really get the feel.
Worth a watch.
Rating: -
I was relieved to know Toby Maguire's whiny tough guy character wasn't going to be through the whole film. That has to be one of the worst mis-castings I've seen in a long while!
Clooney and Blanchett are really good, but the plot twists are too predictable in following the WWII film noir structure. There was no "punch" in the script.
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