Movie Reviews
Hot-buttered opinion on the latest flicks
The Good German
They don't make 'em like they used to, and The Good German is a very good reason why. Steven Soderbergh's latest stylistic experiment is an unintentionally goofy adaptation of Joseph Kanon's post-WWII novel, a thriller about a pair of star-crossed lovers (George Clooney, a military journalist, and Cate Blanchett, wife of a Nazi scientist) caught up in the machinations leading to the Cold War.
The Good German is straining at its seams from the very beginning; it might be called a triumph of style over substance if the style had much to recommend it, but apart from the inky visual aesthetic, the film stumbles more than it struts. Modern, naturalistic actors don't have much luck playing to the rafters like the material requires—Blanchett does all right, but Clooney and Tobey Maguire seem lost in the frame and unable to keep up with the dialogue, a problem exacerbated by Soderbergh's reluctance to use cutaways.
The torpid pacing only serves to dull the impact of what's essentially a suspense-free plot to begin with. Soderbergh's dedication to noir requires that everyone's a bad guy and nobody has any fun—this means you, audience! It's filmmaking to be appreciated rather than enjoyed; too bad it's ultimately such a snoozer that the only reason to keep your eyes open is to roll them.
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