Steven Soderbergh merges his mainstream aptitude with his proclivity for experimentation, making a conventional post-WW2 proto-espionage noir packed with movie stars, but daring to make it in the black-and-white style of period classics like The Third Man, Notorious, and The Lady from Shanghai. It’s an affectation — the arch compositions, semi-mannered acting, and retro ominousness wilt, however initially bewitching it might be to have ’40s characters curse like Chicago cops, and to have apple-cheeked Tobey Maguire play a ruthless bottom feeder. George Clooney is a US journalist come to partitioned Berlin, Maguire his scheming driver, Cate Blanchett his old-flame-turned-whore, the three of them tied up in a twist of plot involving hiding Nazis, Nazi hunters, Russians, black-marketeers, the US military, and the rubble of the city itself. The only realism is in the dialogue (which fleshes out on sufferings no ’40s film could’ve touched); the world it creates is a transparent riff.
On the Web
The Good German's Web site: http://thegoodgerman.warnerbros.com/
