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GOOD
BYE, LENIN! Rating:  (out of 5 stars)Director: Wolfgang Becker Producer: Stefan Arndt Writers: Bernd Lichtenberg, Wolfgang Becker Director of Photography: Martin Kukula Cast: Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas, Alexander Beyer Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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Germany has sent a handful of quality cinematic exports over to the U.S. in the past few years, some of which -- Run Lola Run, Mostly Martha, Nowhere in Africa -- have even managed to drum up a fair amount of interest in the American public. Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin! abounds with the potential to be an addition to the list, a surprisingly accessible, funny and emotional film. It's the kind of foreign movie you feel safe recommending to even the most subtitles-phobic moviegoer, as the genuine heart and enthusiasm that went into making the film are impossible not to detect, and just as difficult not to appreciate.
Carried by clever writing and Daniel Bruhl's totally infectious lead performance, director/co-writer Becker certainly asks his audience to suspend their disbelief on occasion, but you do so without questioning the film for a second. Bruhl stars as Alex, in his late teens, the son of a devoted East German socialist mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass), who happens to collapse and fall into a coma in October 1989. While in the coma, quite a bit changes in Europe -- most notably the Berlin Wall falls and Germany is also re-united, with capitalism finding a new home in the previously off-limits eastern part of the country.
Christiane awakens eight months later, but does so with a heart that's been weakened to the point that any shock might spell the woman's demise. This causes obvious problems for Alex and his older sister, Ariane (Maria Simon), who are in charge of taking care of their mother (their father left the family many years earlier), and also sets up the film's ensuing laughs, as the diligent Alex makes a Herculean effort to keep the clock in his mother's world turned back to October of '89.
Since Christiane is bedridden for nearly the entire duration of the film, it's easier to buy Alex's ability to pull the wool over the woman's eyes. In one of his more elaborate stunts, he and his video-savvy friend Denis shoot and edit together a series of fake news broadcasts that provide answers to any oddities that stir questions within Christiane -- such as when the woman, through her bedroom window, witnesses an enormous Coca-Cola advertising banner being draped across the side of an adjacent building.
The lengths that Alex travels to ostensibly save his mother makes him the most endearing of characters. Sure, his actions may not possess much in the way of a broad view, a point noted by Ariane and a Russian nurse named Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), who becomes Alex's girlfriend, but Bruhl's performance conveys such a pure sense of goodness that this shortsightedness is entirely excusable.
Bernd Lichtenberg and Becker's screenplay smoothly balances the dramatic with a comedic energy that never ceases to entertain. The movie piles on humorously awkward moments, stacking the odds decidedly against Alex, but it doesn't outsmart itself. Despite tackling some heavier thematic territory in its third act (which stumbles once or twice), the film has an upbeat pace that usually shies away from forcing the drama, and also wisely prevents the comedy from ever striking out too broadly.
Good Bye, Lenin! is a fun, intelligent and thoroughly involving
film. Wolfgang Becker takes what looks on paper to be an utter
gimmick of a concept and turns it into a richly moving two hours
at the movies. Given its tone and sensibility, it will be a shame
if this film is unable to find an audience in the U.S…so
listen to my advice and be part of its audience.
(A Sony Pictures Classics release. Opens in New York and Los
Angeles on February 27, 2004. Expands to more cities at later
dates.)
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