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The Good German (2007)

tomatometer

33

Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 147
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 99

Though Steven Soderbergh succeeds in emulating the glossy look of 1940s noirs, The Good German ultimately ends up as a self-conscious exercise in style that forgets to develop compelling characters.

28

Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 33

Though Steven Soderbergh succeeds in emulating the glossy look of 1940s noirs, The Good German ultimately ends up as a self-conscious exercise in style that forgets to develop compelling characters.

audience

34

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 36,430

My Rating

Movie Info

A U.S. Army war correspondent is drawn into a deadly mystery in post-war Berlin as he seeks out his wartime mistress in this adaptation of author Joseph Kanon's best-selling novel. The war is over, and Jake Geismar (George Clooney) is an American journalist assigned the task of covering the peace in Berlin -- but he was once lovers with a mysterious woman named Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett). Lena is a lady with many secrets to hide, however, and now that the fighting has ceased, she has every

R,

Drama, Romance, Mystery & Suspense

Paul Attanasio, Joseph Kanon

May 22, 2007

$0.9M

Warner Bros. Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (153) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (99) | DVD (21)

Why emphasise flaws in a film of such overall ambition and expertise?

March 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This cast almost makes The Good German watchable. It's just that their screenwriter and director don't do them any favors.

January 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
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There's a line between homage and mimicry, and Soderbergh has crossed it.

January 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
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We get no heroes, not even flawed ones. Clooney, our marquee man, chases through numbing plot contortions only because of his lust for Lena. By the time The Good German ended, I had barely a clue if the good ones had lived or died.

January 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Good German is a movie wonk's triumph and no one else's. Soderbergh gets the visuals right but not the clean storytelling line of classic cinema, nor the iconic characters or moral certainty of the oldies.

December 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe
Boston Globe
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I have to admire an ostensibly nostalgic entertainment that so concertedly undermines the romanticism of wartime Hollywood.

December 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An utterly gaseous film

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

A beautifully flawed experiment, "The Good German" is an entertaining if unbalanced war drama that places modern cinema mores on a classic style of American film when the Hayes code would never have allowed such overt sexual reality.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

The Good German is the bad movie. Except for the ambience -- the look of the film -- it stumbles awkwardly on every level.

February 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly
Fayetteville Free Weekly

No matter that it's based on a book, the movie is more about how the reality of the time was seen through the lens of a Michael Curtiz while he was filming "Casablanca".

May 2, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

The final verdict on this movie is that for all its attempts to replicate the great movies of the 1940s, it fails miserably.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Murphy's Movie Reviews
Murphy's Movie Reviews

While admirable as an example of directorial innovation and homage, The Good German fails to connect on a basic emotional level.

May 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Aisle Seat
Aisle Seat

A homage to the romantic noir mysteries of the 1940s, a tribute that tries hard but, alas, misses the mark.

May 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Flat noir homage.

May 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Buddies Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney started out so well. But The Good German is so painful that their recent decision to go their separate ways really merits a gospel choir.

March 30, 2007 Full Review Source: thelondonpaper
thelondonpaper

It's Soderbergh's commitment and creativity that lift The Good German above many of its peers, no matter the era.

March 24, 2007 Full Review Source: UGO

It's an achievement so hermetic it hardly bothers to be a movie.

March 15, 2007 Full Review

It's "The Good German," but not "The Great German."

March 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

While the title raises the question of whether it is possible to escape atrocity without somehow being complicit with those committing them ... Soderbergh seems infinitely more interested in making an anachronism than a timeless film.

March 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

[The Good German is] technically astonishing and Blanchett is excellent, but the script is dull and the confusing plot fails to engage.

March 8, 2007 Full Review Source: ViewLondon
ViewLondon

This should have been Soderbergh gold. Instead it is mostly unengaging and dull, proof positive that they don't make them like they used to.

March 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

A film that feels more like a cinematographer's showreel than an involving drama: flashy, but heartless.

March 6, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC

The lot of it is pseudonoir.

March 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Modern sensibilities crash against period style...

March 2, 2007 Full Review

Steven Soderbergh massages his fond memories of the golden (if sometimes black and white) days of movies with a noirish sensibility.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

Audience Reviews for The Good German

Soderbergh's visuals are intriguing in this WWII drama, but the story is anything but. Clooney's charisma proves not enough to make the film interesting.
March 5, 2013
Kase Vollebregt

Super Reviewer

Director Steven Soderbergh's homage to 1940s film noir cinema stays true to the filming methods used back in the day: the camera work, lighting, music, everything. That's a little strange at first, but you gotta admire the tenacity with which this is pulled through from the beginning to the end. As for the plot, it starts out slowly and with what seems to be a rather unlikable character. 20 minutes in a rather unexpected death gets things moving and the film gets more interesting with every minute from then on. Overall, we go through three narrators as we switch perspectives throughout the plot. The acting is great, especially Cate Blanchett seems to have emerged right from that era of cinema. There's even the Casablanca homage in the end. An interesting, even if not overwhelming experience that's pretty entertaining and well done.
December 15, 2006
ironclad1609

Super Reviewer

Movies Like The Good German

    1. Lena Brandt: He's a good German.
    – Submitted by Baurushan J (7 months ago)
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