The Good German (15.)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Tony Curran. 106 mins
Director Steven Soderbergh seems to choose his projects as dares - attempting to bring high brow sci-fi to the multiplexes of North America with Solaris, making another Ocean’s Eleven film because someone said it was the worse possible thing he could do at this point in his career. Now he’s made a thriller set in 1945 in the style of the period and largely limiting himself to the methods of the time.
Soderbergh commitment to this conceit is considerable. Shot in black and white, the titles, the music and camera set ups are all authentic. Only the famous faces, the language and an all encompassing cynicism born of the 60 year perspective mark it as not being a noir contemporary of The Third Man. Imagine a scene on top of a Ferris wheel with Holly Martins telling Harry Lime where he can shove his effing cuckoo clocks and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.
While the war continued in the Pacific, in the summer on 1945 the allied leaders Stalin, Truman and Churchill gathered in Berlin for the Potsdam Peace Conference, dividing up the spoils of the last war while positioning themselves for the next one. Also arriving is correspondent Jake Geismer (Clooney), hoping to relocate his pre-war love Lena Brandt (Blanchett.) When he does she’s with new boyfriend Tully (Maguire) a golly gosh G.I. who sees himself as a black market operator.
A murder plunges us into an over abundant plot that takes in Nazi scientists, evil commies, duplicitous Americans and low life black marketers. In adapting Joseph Kanon’s novel, scriptwriter Paul Attansio’s main problem is finding an orderly way to get all that plot out. Often the narrative seems to involve nothing more than Clooney repeatedly walking into rooms and getting jumped on by mystery assailants. It tries to cram in too many twists and when the final revelation of Lena’s big secret arrives it has no impact.
The cast though is excellent. Clooney is such a natural born movie star you could drop him into any era of film making and he’d thrive while Maguire does well in a part that calls for a cocktail of naivety and ruthlessness without ever letting audiences in on how many measures of each. Casting Blanchett as a Marlene Dietrich style dark lady with secrets really ought to be a non starter but she pulls it off.
I imagine the film will ultimately be categorise as one of Soderbergh's interesting failures but as failure go, it is genuinely interesting.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Tony Curran. 106 mins
Director Steven Soderbergh seems to choose his projects as dares - attempting to bring high brow sci-fi to the multiplexes of North America with Solaris, making another Ocean’s Eleven film because someone said it was the worse possible thing he could do at this point in his career. Now he’s made a thriller set in 1945 in the style of the period and largely limiting himself to the methods of the time.
Soderbergh commitment to this conceit is considerable. Shot in black and white, the titles, the music and camera set ups are all authentic. Only the famous faces, the language and an all encompassing cynicism born of the 60 year perspective mark it as not being a noir contemporary of The Third Man. Imagine a scene on top of a Ferris wheel with Holly Martins telling Harry Lime where he can shove his effing cuckoo clocks and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.
While the war continued in the Pacific, in the summer on 1945 the allied leaders Stalin, Truman and Churchill gathered in Berlin for the Potsdam Peace Conference, dividing up the spoils of the last war while positioning themselves for the next one. Also arriving is correspondent Jake Geismer (Clooney), hoping to relocate his pre-war love Lena Brandt (Blanchett.) When he does she’s with new boyfriend Tully (Maguire) a golly gosh G.I. who sees himself as a black market operator.
A murder plunges us into an over abundant plot that takes in Nazi scientists, evil commies, duplicitous Americans and low life black marketers. In adapting Joseph Kanon’s novel, scriptwriter Paul Attansio’s main problem is finding an orderly way to get all that plot out. Often the narrative seems to involve nothing more than Clooney repeatedly walking into rooms and getting jumped on by mystery assailants. It tries to cram in too many twists and when the final revelation of Lena’s big secret arrives it has no impact.
The cast though is excellent. Clooney is such a natural born movie star you could drop him into any era of film making and he’d thrive while Maguire does well in a part that calls for a cocktail of naivety and ruthlessness without ever letting audiences in on how many measures of each. Casting Blanchett as a Marlene Dietrich style dark lady with secrets really ought to be a non starter but she pulls it off.
I imagine the film will ultimately be categorise as one of Soderbergh's interesting failures but as failure go, it is genuinely interesting.
