Review of The Good German (2006) by Craig M — 20 Jan 2010

From a technical standpoint, The Good German is a pretty remarkable achievement. Steven Soderbergh goes out of his way to recreate a 1940s noir film, down to the camera choice and microphone setup, and the results are uncanny.

Add to that some perfect casting - George Clooney and Cate Blanchett are perfect as 1950s matinee idols - and you have a perfect piece of retro noir. Of course, Soderbergh takes a very different sort of story - one with heavy questions about communism, the post-war world, and even the American heroic ideal - and uses it to create an interesting juxtaposition between the two.

The problem, though, is that The Good German is more interesting from an academic level than an emotional level. The story feels muddled, and while I understand a lot of what Soderbergh is playing with, it didn't make it any more interesting.

And, I can't discuss my disappointment in the film without mentioning Tobey Maguire's utter failure to create a convincing "heavy" for the movie. I get that Soderbergh is playing with conventions and against type, but sometimes people get typecast because they're limited, and such appears to be the case with Maguire.

It's an interesting film, make no doubt about it, but only really because of the execution and the ideas behind it. As a story, it's less than engaging, and it's a flaw that left me feeling the one thing I almost never feel in a Soderbergh movie: a little bored.