“The Good German” (Warner Brothers)
Casablanca Rip-off
Director Steven Soderberg films his latest movie “The Good German” in black and white and does everything possible to make it look like a film from the forties such as “Casablanca.” He casts George Clooney and Cate Blanchett as lovers who are reunited in Germany after the war has ended and even gives them a scene at an airport at the very end of the film that appears to be ripped right out of “Casablanca.” Note to Steven: looking like “Casablanca” and being of the caliber of “Casablanca” are two very different things.
Clooney plays Jake Geismer, a war correspondent who returns to Germany after the war has ended to cover the Potsdam Conference. Immediately upon his arrival he is assigned a driver named Patrick Tully (Tobey Maguire). Tully has a few secrets and one of them is that a woman named Lena Brandt (Blanchett) is his mistress.
Lena was also Jake’s lover back in the early days of the war. Now they meet again and the old feelings return. But Lena has a husband and he is being sought by both the Americans and the Russians. Lena says he is dead but no one believes her. Still Jake is willing to help her get out of Germany.
None of this is very interesting and none of it makes a lot of sense. Clooney is an actor who never appears to take his roles seriously. He always seems to have an inside joke going on and if we don’t know what it is, well tough. In this film his character gets beaten up so often it becomes a joke. Jake is not a man to bet on in a fight.
Blanchett is very good in her role but she doesn’t have anyone to play off of. Maguire is totally miscast as her brutal lover, and Clooney’s character is supposed to love her but there is no heat there. She just has to operate in a vacuum and keep the audience as entertained as possible.
The film is rated R for violence and profanity.
If you are gong to make a movie in black and white these days there had better be a good reason. With “The Good German” there isn’t. It is just a gimmick that wears thin and then fails all together. The film could have done with fewer shadows and more enlightenment.
Blanchett’s performance is the saving grace of the film. Clooney and Maguire’s performances tend to pull it down but she struggles to keep it afloat – just barely. What it all boils down to in the end is that “The Good German” is a bad movie, period!
I scored “The Good German” a bad 4 out of 10.
