Review of The Good German (2006) by Jim H — 10 Nov 2011

A serviceman investigates the death of a smuggler who was having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.

The story of this film is such a classic noir that all its twists and turns are predictable, bordering on cliche, and director Steven Soderbergh is clearly paying homage to the directors of the early forties, particularly Michael Curtiz. But there's a line where homage meets cliche, and at its few good points -- usually involving a perfectly framed shot of Cate Blanchett in black and white or George Clooney's badly written but well delivered voice over -- The Good German rests on the homage side, but it lives in cliche.

The Good German experiment, which is what it seems, makes me wonder if classics are classics because they have a style that one can imitate or if they attain classic status by being perfect expressions of their times. After watching Soderbergh's attempt to cherry pick style of the two options, I have to think that classics are not inimitable, to be appreciated but not duplicated.

Overall, I found The Good German interesting only on a theoretical level, but we can talk about film theory without wasting time on this movie.