The Good German is an experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong, like Frankenstein's Monster or Crystal Pepsi. Director Stephen Soderbergh somehow got it into his head to mimic films from the 1940s. Not be inspired by them or pay homage to them, but literally imitate their look and sound and feel. I'm not sure that's a good idea in the first place and then Soderbergh does it in such a self-conscious, grating and ponderous fashion that he creates a film that is, to all intents and purposes, unwatchable.
Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is a war correspondent sent to post-WWII Berlin to cover the Potsdam conference of Truman, Churchill and Stalin. It's a good thing there were other reporters there because Jake completely blows off that historic event to instead get mixed up in a simple yet confusing mystery involving his older German lover Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) and a rough-edged Army corporal named Tully (Tobey Maguire). Lena desperately wants to get out of Berlin and there are more than a few men willing to help her, some out of love and others for her help in keeping a secret. The unfocused story touches rather ham handedly on collective German guilt over the Holocaust, the first rumblings of the Cold War, the Nazi contribution to the U.S. missile program, life in the rubble of post-War Berlin and Jake Geismer being the biggest wuss in Europe. Seriously, Geismer gets his ass kicked so regularly it's like a running gag, except this movie isn't a comedy.
I wasn't exaggerating when I described The Good German as a bad replica of a 1940s film. It's in black-and-white and Soderbergh uses the same sort of camera work, lighting and stage blocking as that era. He incessantly blasts scenes with the same kind of melodramatic theme music as that time. The movie is littered with stock footage of post-War Germany. Soderbergh even uses 1940's style editing techniques to segue from one scene to another. If that sort of overdrive nostalgia sounds like it might be neat, trust me. It's not.
The problem is that all that effort is painfully purposeless. There's no point at all to any of that cinematic affectation. It doesn't lead anywhere or do anything to enhance the story. There's no metacommentary of any sort at work here. It's just a 21st century filmmaker apparently entertaining himself by regurgitating nearly 60 year old cinema. Imagine seeing modern NBA players trying to replicate on the court the way players shot, dribbled and passed back in the 1940s. It would look artificial and forced and out of sync. That's a great description of The Good German.
Making matters worse, Soderbergh was apparently so caught up in his duplication efforts that he didn't notice that his story meanders and stops making sense at a couple points. He was also oblivious to his three big stars giving atrocious performances. Tobey Maguire's acting ranges from looking like he's reading off cue cards to raging like a meth addict who just smoked some crank. George Clooney is essentially doing a time traveling version of Danny Ocean. And Cate Blanchett seems to be focusing all her energy into speaking two octaves lower than her normal voice.
It was a struggle to make it all the way through this movie. Like being stuck in a time warp where the seconds become minutes and the minutes become hours, the length of this film stretched out longer than the Pleistocene Era. I started to root for everyone to die in an anachronistic atomic explosion, just so this bleepin' piece of crap would end.
One thing this film does prove is the old adage that when it comes to making movies, nobody knows nothing'. Soderbergh and Clooney have teamed up to do some excellent work and then they collaborate on this punishing waste of time and money.
Stay far away from The Good German.
Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is a war correspondent sent to post-WWII Berlin to cover the Potsdam conference of Truman, Churchill and Stalin. It's a good thing there were other reporters there because Jake completely blows off that historic event to instead get mixed up in a simple yet confusing mystery involving his older German lover Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) and a rough-edged Army corporal named Tully (Tobey Maguire). Lena desperately wants to get out of Berlin and there are more than a few men willing to help her, some out of love and others for her help in keeping a secret. The unfocused story touches rather ham handedly on collective German guilt over the Holocaust, the first rumblings of the Cold War, the Nazi contribution to the U.S. missile program, life in the rubble of post-War Berlin and Jake Geismer being the biggest wuss in Europe. Seriously, Geismer gets his ass kicked so regularly it's like a running gag, except this movie isn't a comedy.
I wasn't exaggerating when I described The Good German as a bad replica of a 1940s film. It's in black-and-white and Soderbergh uses the same sort of camera work, lighting and stage blocking as that era. He incessantly blasts scenes with the same kind of melodramatic theme music as that time. The movie is littered with stock footage of post-War Germany. Soderbergh even uses 1940's style editing techniques to segue from one scene to another. If that sort of overdrive nostalgia sounds like it might be neat, trust me. It's not.
The problem is that all that effort is painfully purposeless. There's no point at all to any of that cinematic affectation. It doesn't lead anywhere or do anything to enhance the story. There's no metacommentary of any sort at work here. It's just a 21st century filmmaker apparently entertaining himself by regurgitating nearly 60 year old cinema. Imagine seeing modern NBA players trying to replicate on the court the way players shot, dribbled and passed back in the 1940s. It would look artificial and forced and out of sync. That's a great description of The Good German.
Making matters worse, Soderbergh was apparently so caught up in his duplication efforts that he didn't notice that his story meanders and stops making sense at a couple points. He was also oblivious to his three big stars giving atrocious performances. Tobey Maguire's acting ranges from looking like he's reading off cue cards to raging like a meth addict who just smoked some crank. George Clooney is essentially doing a time traveling version of Danny Ocean. And Cate Blanchett seems to be focusing all her energy into speaking two octaves lower than her normal voice.
It was a struggle to make it all the way through this movie. Like being stuck in a time warp where the seconds become minutes and the minutes become hours, the length of this film stretched out longer than the Pleistocene Era. I started to root for everyone to die in an anachronistic atomic explosion, just so this bleepin' piece of crap would end.
One thing this film does prove is the old adage that when it comes to making movies, nobody knows nothing'. Soderbergh and Clooney have teamed up to do some excellent work and then they collaborate on this punishing waste of time and money.
Stay far away from The Good German.