I am being a little generous with my grade but I have to give extra points to a guy with a wacky German name like that. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck now outshines Dr. Jurgen Fauth as awesome German name that I know isn’t made up.
Anyway, this movie, which won the Oscar so doesn’t need my approbation, is an engrossing yarn in itself but also a nice antidote to Communist kitsch (see The Red Atlantis.) With the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s destruction approaching (I know, I know) it’s good to be reminded how awful that system was.
I can’t say this is a perfect movie — there are script problems. A dues ex machina that made me want to throw popcorn at the screen plus a coda that just kept on going. (Suggestion — and spoiler alert — the whole movie shoulda been done in flashback. It shoulda started with Georg looking at his file and then trying to learn who HGK/XX was and piece it together from there. Trust me, it woulda been better.)
Another problem, and forgive me if this is crass. Remember the old bit on Seinfeld, when Jerry’s girlfriend was attractive one minute, then hideous the next? That’s the story with the female lead here. There are shots where she is sexy and gorgeous, then others when you’ll swear she’s a man in drag. She’s a difficult character to have sympathy for in the first place. . .when you can’t look at her without thinking of Kiki and Herb it is even tougher.
Highest praise goes to the costume designer. Our hero wears a zip-up grey jacket (see second photo) in nearly every shot. Grey, corduroy, perfect. . .and with those little grey triangles with snaps that resemble military emblems and epaulettes. Of course they are blank because State Security is secret and no one has a name, no one is really there and you didn’t see anything.
