The Good German 2006

Critics score:
33 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: There isn't a moment in this self-conscious, uninvolving movie when you aren't aware you are watching an experiment, which might make a good lesson for film school students on what not to do. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Interesting to watch, up to a point. The Good German gets lost amidst its references; it doesn't stand by itself but is held up by the films that inspired it. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A most peculiar and unsatisfying film. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Soderbergh, screenwriter Paul Attanasio and their colleagues get much of the mood and atmosphere down, but they fail -- or chose not to try -- to emulate the sense of wily playfulness that made old film-noir characters so rich and engaging. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Steven Soderbergh is usually an inspired chameleon, perfectly suiting his style to his content. But The Good German is an ambitious miss. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Where is Major Clark Gable now that we need him? Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I have to admire an ostensibly nostalgic entertainment that so concertedly undermines the romanticism of wartime Hollywood. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Soderbergh seems to have done everything within his power to keep the audience at arm's length. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Soderbergh wants us to see post-War Berlin as, in its way, another Chinatown a la Roman Polanski. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The Good German is...equally infused with knowing sophistication and a surprising amount of depth. Read more

Arizona Republic: Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The Good German is a movie wonk's triumph and no one else's. Soderbergh gets the visuals right but not the clean storytelling line of classic cinema, nor the iconic characters or moral certainty of the oldies. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: In a few quick strokes, Soderbergh and screenwriter Paul Attanasio (working from a novel by Joseph Kanon) sketch a convincing scenario in which it is technically not possible for the good guys to win a war because good guys don't fight them. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: There's a line between homage and mimicry, and Soderbergh has crossed it. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The Good German is a prime example of a movie made by highly skilled and intelligent filmmakers that nevertheless seems misguided from the get-go. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: We get no heroes, not even flawed ones. Clooney, our marquee man, chases through numbing plot contortions only because of his lust for Lena. By the time The Good German ended, I had barely a clue if the good ones had lived or died. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A history-based, murder-mystery war-yarn that goes round and round in circles. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: On the meta level, Soderbergh has re-created not only the kind of story told in the 1940s, but the kind of technical production Hollywood gloried in more than half a century ago, too. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Everything about The Good German seems a few degrees off, as if the new map of Europe has somehow altered the latitudes along with attitudes. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: It works, as homage to a particular time and place in film history, and as a knowing revision that brings Hollywood's subtext of '40s postwar corruption to the surface. The Good German isn't so much an imitation as a crafty modernization. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: A few of Soderbergh's movies have foundered on a similar ironic detachment. The singular exception, Out of Sight, floated along on sexual electricity and warm movie love, but The Good German feels passionless, throttled by technique. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The Good German is Steven Soderbergh's game attempt to reinvigorate the dense intrigue of classic wartime thrillers like The Third Man with a contemporary, neo-noir edge. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The movie's aesthetic is divorced from its sensibility. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: If you feel anything other than admiration for its craftsmanship, let me know; The Good German is as emotionally cold and unconvincing as any movie I've seen this year. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This cast almost makes The Good German watchable. It's just that their screenwriter and director don't do them any favors. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Good German, Steven Soderbergh's film noir homage, is nearly perfect when it comes to style and tone, but it concentrates so single-mindedly on the mechanics of the narrative that it loses sight of its characters. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: With The Good German, Soderbergh -- generally a terrific and creative filmmaker -- apes a style, and a way of seeing, that he clearly doesn't understand. It feels like a hit to the stomach. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The crucial key elements that every vintage Warners film had as a matter of course are lacking here. The story isn't gripping or even coherent. There is no real romance. There's mystery, but only in a plot sense -- i.e., what's going on? Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: The photography is so beautiful, and the actors make brave choices, and Soderbergh's homage to the films he so obviously loves is done with such grace and passion -- so there's just enough that works to outweigh the major plot concerns. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A classic noir film demands a classic noir story, and Paul Attanasio's screenplay (based on the Joseph Kanon novel) just isn't up to the dark mark. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Good German is counterfeit coin in search of easy marks. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: The result is a movie that is never quite amusing but never quite mordantly thought provoking either. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Technically stunning but narratively and thematically hollow. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The Good German has little of the luster, sheen and pictorial nuance of a top-flight Hollywood picture of the old school. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The Good German is seriously deficient in the stars' star power and narrative excitement. The movie is lovingly framed, carefully lit, and fatally insipid. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Of The Good German, it can be said that the operation was a brilliant success, even if the patient is not merely dead but most sincerely dead. Read more