Review of The Lives of Others (2006) by Damiano C — 20 Jan 2011

This is a pretty excellent German drama, and not really what I expected it to be like. It's a film where the historical context of the setting is very important: it is set in East Berlin in 1984, and is very specifically about the paranoia and obsessive suspicion with which the GDR government treated its citizens. It might be good to watch in a history class about the Soviet Union/East Germany post-World-War II.

The story concerns a government spy who decides to set up a round-the-clock monitoring of a successful playwright, perhaps because he has nothing better to do. The playwright has not broken any rules, but as the spy listens obsessively to the goings-on in the playwright's apartment all day, he himself begins to be affected by what he hears. I don't want to say more than that about the plot. I'll just note that, although the movie is a bit slow to get going, it becomes progressively more involving as it goes along, is surprisingly affecting by the end, and turns out to be an impressively well-thought-out story.

Ulrich Muehe, who reminds me a bit of a wearier Kevin Spacey, is truly excellent as the spy. The character has a very interesting development over the course of the movie. Muehe perfectly captures what a sad little man the spy is at the beginning of the story. In fact, the whole movie is good at showing its oppressive government characters not as frightening 1984-types, but as just gray, ordinary little men working for a corrupt system. Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck are both very good as the playwright and his girlfriend, but their characters are more conventional and get less interesting growth in the movie.

Apparently this was writer-director Florian Henckel-Donnersmarck's first movie, and it's quite a debut. The movie is a great depiction of its time and place, it has some great acting, and it tells an unpredictable and engrossing story. It's well worth checking out.