The banality of evil has met its match in the banality of Good, a Holocaust parable that barely registers a pulse.
Comment
12/31/08
Good (2008)
32
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:21
Rotten:44
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Though ambitious, Good stumbles in the transition from stage to screen, and Mortensen's performance isn't enough to cover its flaws.
Theatrical Release:Dec 31, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: EASTERN PROMISES' Viggo Mortensen stars in this World-War-II-era drama as a professor who is reluctant to join the Nazi party. As anti-Semitic feelings grow, he is forced to choose between his... [More]
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker, Steven Mackintosh
Director: Vicente Amorim
Reviews for Good
Top CriticViggo Mortensen looks the part but never brings it home with great conviction or passion. I never believed in the character and that greatly diminished the film's ability to argue its ethical case.
12/31/08
Top CriticThe banality of evil is a rich subject; the cluelessness of same, not so much.
12/31/08
A worthy attempt to give the banality of bureaucratic evil both an individualized credibility and a somber universal warning
12/31/08
Fails to convince that this man could remain so removed from the horrifying events unfolding around him.
12/31/08
A really terrible movie based on what I imagine was a far more interesting 1981 play.
12/30/08
Top CriticA subtle and quietly devastating film directed by Vicente Amorim from John Wrathall's delicately written adaptation of a play by C.P. Taylor.
12/30/08
Though the film opens with an intriguing burnished look, it bogs down about halfway through with talkiness and uneven pacing. When reality finally dawns on Halder, it is not only too late for him to redeem himself, but too late for the audience to care.
12/30/08
To those who wonder if we really need Hollywood to give us more Holocaust stories, I would argue yes, just better ones than we get with Good.
12/30/08
Good is an anemic screen adaptation of C. P. Taylor's play about a respectable 'good German' who passively acquiesces to Hitler’s agenda.
12/30/08
Top Critic'Good' bares its heart on its sleeve way prior to its closing dedications.
12/30/08
Good is pretty schematic — betraying its theatrical roots, perhaps. It's also a little drawn out. But it demonstrates the surprising power of character flaws in drama.
12/29/08
Top CriticAn ambitious move about a Nazi professor played by Viggo Mortensen that never really grabs hold of us because it's difficult to identify with the main character.
12/27/08
Despite its rather highbrow pedigree, Good’s journey along its predetermined path from book burnings to concentration camps reeks of middlebrow button-pushing, which the cast’s clipped British accents do nothing to dispel.
12/25/08
Decidedly blunt and unaffecting.
12/21/08
A character study of a Nazi quisling that's frequently too muddled to reach even the level of banality.
12/20/08
Sincere but stilted adaptation of the 1980s stage play dissecting a German intellectual's embrace of the Nazi Party.
12/19/08
Mortensen evidently thought that a stuttering and maddeningly tentative delivery renders the man, as written, understandable, or creditable, or sympathetically good.
12/08/08
Good feels more self-important than satisfying.
12/06/08
Despite Mortensen's heroic effort, Good is simply not good, a failed version of a stylized, powerful play of ideas about the devastating price of conformity; for better renditions of this Faustian drama see Bertolucci's The Conformist and Szabu's Mephisto
11/18/08
Latest News for Good
December 15, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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December 15, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
August 26, 2008:
Trailer Bulletin: Good
The trailer for "Good," Vicente Amorim's Viggo Mortensen-led adaptation of the long-running C.P. Taylor play about a man's hellish descent into the Nazi Party during World War... More...
September 12, 2007:
RT Talks Eastern Promises with David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen
The upcoming Eastern Promises marks the second collaboration between David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen since A History of Violence in 2006. A crime drama with an interest in... More...
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