Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Good German - A Movie Review


****

(George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire)

Set in Berlin shortly after the end of the war, with the 1945 Potsdam conference as a backdrop, this is a fairly standard thriller, with the Americans and Russians scrambling to get their hands on the Germans behind the V2 rocket program.

But what earns this movie four stars is the look and feel of the movie. The director, Steven Soderberg, has filmed it as if it was actually filmed in 1945. I have read that he only used film techniques that were available to the filmmaker of 1945 to give the film an authentic look. And he succeeds brilliantly. Think of watching 'Casablanca' and you'll get the idea.

Cate Blanchett is, as usual, very good as the downtrodden Berliner ; she really is a chameleon as an actor. Tobey Maguire is very creepy, and Clooney doesn't have to work too hard in his role. Jack Thompson also stars and is great, but boy has he stacked the weight on!

I love movies that try something different - 'A Scanner Darkly', 'Sin City' - and The Good German, whilst not pushing cinema to new heights, stands out from the current crop of movies on offer.

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