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Good Bye, Lenin (2004)

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Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 106
Fresh: 95 | Rotten: 11

Funny and poignant social critique of German reunification.

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 5

Funny and poignant social critique of German reunification.

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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 52,731

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Movie Info

A dedicated young German boy pulls off an elaborate scheme to keep his mother in good health in this comedy drama from director Wolfgang Becker. Suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma after seeing her son arrested during a protest, Alex's (Daniel Br�hl) socialist mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass), remains comatose through the fall of the Berlin wall and the German Democratic Republic. Knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal upon his mother's awakening, Alex strives to keep

R, 2 hr. 1 min.

Drama, Romance, Art House & International, Comedy

Directed By: Wolfgang Becker

Written By: Wolfgang Becker, Bernd Lichtenberg

In Theaters: Feb 27, 2004 Limited

On DVD: Aug 10, 2004

Box Office:$3.9M

Sony Pictures Classics

Non-Germans will certainly get the essence of the humor but may find the movie long and repetitive.

July 21, 2004 Comment

Kirk Honeycutt

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

Charming and eventually poignant.

May 13, 2004 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

| Comment

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

A funny movie that rises above farce to the level of sophisticated satire.

April 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel

| Comment

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

It is a sweethearted comedy about the fall of Communism and the lingering nostalgia for an East Germany that no longer exists.

April 22, 2004 Comment

Richard Nilsen

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

Watching Becker invent new challenges and new solutions in scene after scene makes Good Bye, Lenin! a joyous show, blurred by tears of sympathy.

April 2, 2004 Full Review Source: Denver Post

| Comment

Michael Booth

Denver Post

Top Critic

Serves up an odd but intriguing situation.

April 2, 2004 Comment

Robert Denerstein

Denver Rocky Mountain News

Top Critic

The real story is how ideologies melt when it comes to affairs of the heart. In that way, the movie has an appeal that goes way beyond its country's borders.

November 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Scene-Stealers.com

| Comment

Eric Melin

Scene-Stealers.com

Succeeds as a comedy, as a glimpse at a tumultuous time in European history, and as a thoughtful look at the great lengths to which people will go for important relationships.

November 1, 2006 Comment

Angie Ward

Christianity Today Source: Christianity Today

The real story is how ideologies melt when it comes to affairs of the heart. In that way, the movie has an appeal that goes way beyond its country's borders.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Lawrence.com

| Comment

Eric Melin

Lawrence.com Source: Lawrence.com

Un film qui propose � la fois une r�flexion intelligente sur la chute du mur de Berlin, un divertissement amusant et un r�cit touchant.

December 16, 2004 Comment

Louis-J�r�me Cloutier

Panorama

A political comedy that reaches you right down in your soul, reminding us without any Benigni-ish moral frivolity that life sure is complicated, but it is also beautiful.

August 15, 2004 Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks

| Comment

Nick Davis

Nick's Flick Picks

An enjoyable comedy about keeping a big thing secret from someone and an interesting drama about family ties and values and politics.

July 29, 2004 Full Review Source: european-films.net

| Comment

Boyd van Hoeij

european-films.net

This is an unusual and tender story about the love of a family for each other.

July 18, 2004 Full Review | Comment

Linda Cook

Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

Communism may be dead in Good Bye, Lenin! but god-damn it if it ain't going out with a bang.

July 14, 2004 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

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Audience Reviews for Good Bye, Lenin

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"The country my mother left behind was a country she believed in; a country we kept alive till her last breath; a country that never existed in that form; a country that, in my memory, I will always associate with my mother."In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma; a young

September 30, 2009

Lorenzo von Matterhorn

Super Reviewer

Alexander Beyer's performance is brilliant in this quirky German film set during the fall of the Berlin wall. Wolfgang Becker really needs to make more films.

September 14, 2009

Anthony Lawrie

Super Reviewer

Good Bye, Lenin Quotes

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1. Alex: She [Mother] missed how Ariane gave up her study of economic theory and had her first practical experience with the circulation of money.
– Submitted by Ralph T (7 months ago)
1. Alex: These are 30,000 East Marks! That was our money, for 40 damn years! Now you, you Western fuck, you want to tell me it's worth nothing?
– Submitted by Ralph T (7 months ago)
1. Alex: The country my mother left was a country she had believed in, and which we kept alive until her last second. A country that in fact never existed like this. A country that in my memory will always be connected to my mother.
– Submitted by Ralph T (7 months ago)