The Good German (Movie Review)

This new take on the old film noir — reminiscent of films like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon — really didn't do much for me.

The characters of The Good German (2006) were flat and only moderately compelling. And only George Clooney's WWII Army Press Corps captain was even the least bit sympathetic.

Regardless of whether or not director Steven Soderbergh intentionally created unsympathetic characters (perhaps in an attempt to show how war negatively impacts its participants), the end result was something interesting to "look" at, but not so much to watch.

The film centers around Berlin, after the collapse of Hitler but before the veritable destruction of two Japanese islands. Berlin was divided into sectors, and the action of this film centers around the mysterious search for the German logician, Emil Brandt. His wife Lena (played by Cate Blanchett) is a proverbial shell of her former self, who seems disinterested in whether or not her husband is dead or alive.

And while this film attempts to underscore various failings of war (treatment of purported enemies, the "future" of battle, etc.), it lacked the poignancy needed to make this Oscar hopeful into an award-worthy film.

FINAL GRADE: C