Good Bye, Lenin! Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)April 7th, 2004
GOOD BYE, LENIN!
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Contrary to the title, this film is about
one small room in East Germany that has returned
to the culture of Communist rule. It is one man's
attempt to protect his mother from the shock of
finding out that communism fell in the eight
months that she was comatose. While the film has
many serious moments the plot itself is more
appropriate to a farce than to a semi-serious
comedy-drama. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
Years ago when her husband defected to the West--and presumably into the arms of another woman--Christiane (played by Katrin Sass) threw herself whole-heartedly into patriotism for her country, the German Democratic Republic. All her sexual energy was diverted into public spirit. As a teacher she taught the virtues of Communism to her young students. In 1989 when she saw her son Alex (Daniel Bruhl) demonstrating against communism in a demonstration that may be violently suppressed she has a heart attack. She falls into a coma for eight months and is unconscious while the old government dies, the Berlin Wall is toppled, and the two Germanys are re-united. Also her daughter and later her son fall in love. Then Christiane regains consciousness. It may be too much of a shock to her to realize her beloved German Democratic Republic is no more. She will be confined to her bed. Alex decides to pull an elaborate ruse to make his mother believe that the East of Germany is still under the control of Communism.
The task turns out to be more complex than Alex expected. He has to recruit a friend and to film news stories for his mother's TV. For East German brands that his mother liked, but that went away with Communism, he must find old jars and refill them. The script's biggest problem is in the complexity of the ruse. In a farce the viewer is willing to suspend a great deal of disbelief and ignore large logic holes. However GOOD BYE, LENIN! is not a farce and has some serious drama. Much of the story is about Alex's relationship with the father who defected leaving his family behind. GOOD BYE, LENIN! might better be described as a comedy-drama with some serious emotional interplay. Somehow that seems to require a more logical world and the viewer needs to believe the premise of the story. Much of the ruse is possible only because of the contrivance that Alex's job selling satellite television allows him to play his fictional news programs for his mother. And he has the talent to write and photograph these programs. (That is not as easy as it sounds. If you doubt me, try writing a news story that could pass for an authentic piece of network news.) He also is able to quickly improvise explanations when his mother notices inconsistencies in this fantasy world he has created.
The film never completely explains Christiane's apparent passion for the German Democratic Republic. The story works only if we believe the shock of the political change is sufficient to kill Christiane. Certainly her children have long since eagerly grasped the changes and newfound freedoms of the succeeding order. Her son sells satellite TV and her daughter works at a Burger King and has brought home a West German boyfriend. Of course there must have been some patriots in East Germany, but it seems the majority did not believe very strongly in the socialist political system. Alex himself was inspired to believe in his country years before when an East German became a cosmonaut, but he does not have much disappointment in the political change. Among other things, this film seems to be a paean to capitalism and the changes it brought. So many of the Germans seem to have embraced the new system and East Germany filled with the vibrant colors of capitalism, even if they are the colors of advertisements.
The plot of GOOD BYE, LENIN! has holes, but the film itself is by turns light and amusing and then dramatic and even affecting. But somehow it just is not greatly believable. I rate it +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. [-mrl]
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
