Review of The Good German (2006) by Seamus K — 10 Jan 2008

Perhaps it makes me something of an anachronism, but I love going to movies and feeling that Iâ??m going to the movies. Steven Soderbergh has styled The Good German in the conventions of its time, the â??40s, just as Far From Heaven (which Soderbergh and George Clooney produced) mimicked and paid tribute to the â??50s melodramas of Douglas Sirk. Virtually everything about the film is, of sorts, a reminiscence, even aspects of the plot. Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is a war correspondent whoâ??s returned to Berlin to cover the Potsdam post-war peace conference. His driver, Corporal Tully (Tobey Maguire) has a girlfriend, Lena (Cate Blanchett), who used to be Geismerâ??s girlfriend. But Tully, an all-American charmer, is not merely a driver for the army. He is a black marketeer, seemingly playing everyone against each other in the multi-sectored city.

The directorâ??s usual cameraman (Peter Andrews, a pseudonym for Soderbergh, as is Mary Ann Bernard, the filmâ??s editor) shoots wonderfully with black and white. The script by Paul Attanasio, whoâ??s such a good writer, is succinct and well rounded. And composer Thomas Newman mustâ??ve had a whale of a time pulling out the stops and writing so many crescendos. Heâ??s a rather fitting choice, since his father Alfred was one (if not the most significant one) to create the Hollywood orchestral â??soundâ??.

Herein lies the difference between celebrating an era of filmmaking and referencing it, though The Good German successfully does both. Films are referring to other films more and more â?? usually to the newer filmâ??s detriment. Thereâ??s a scene in The Holiday with Jack Black singing various film themes, like Jaws and Gone With The Wind. Such scenes invariably take me out of the film and make me yearn for the older, better one â?? especially since The Holiday has drippy, decidedly unmemorable music by Hans Zimmer. And Bewitched (which earned new meaning to the phrase â??ill-conceivedâ??), by using the concept of a witch starring in a sitcom about a witch, made everyone yearn for the â??60s sitcom â?? even re-runs.

The Good German uses derivatives for its spirit as well as its springboard. It doesnâ??t make you wish you were seeing an oldie â?? except maybe the end (but Iâ??m sure weâ??re meant to think of Casablanca). Leland Orser, Beau Bridges and Jack Thompson (who could almost resemble Charles Coburn from the old days) are terrific. Clooney works a little against the â??40s type, especially by losing every fistfight (heâ??s a journalist, remember â?? itâ??s not Bogart playing Bogart), but heâ??s terrific. Blanchett is perfection as a â??40s dame who has no money, but always looks great â?? it almost made me wish sheâ??d put on shoulder pads and tried a Joan Crawford on us. Almost. Only Maguire, who seems ideally cast, looks adrift having brutish sex with Blanchett and beating up our hero. But maybe thatâ??s the point. Celebrating some clichés, and tweaking others is what makes it such fun.