"The German Democratic Republic lives on -- in 79 cubic meters!"

Good bye, Lenin! (2004): 7/10

Poster (c) Sony Pictures Classics

There are so many different plots that can be used for movies. Many of them are quite funny, but fizzle soon throughout the movie. Others have plots that sound funny but turn out not to really be comedies themselves (see also: The Cooler). Good bye, Lenin! is one of the latter. There haven't been that many movies based around the fall of the Berlin Wall, nor the aftereffects of it.

Alex (Daniel Bruhl) is a young man living with his mother and sister in East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He protests against the communism as his proudly socialist mother Christiane (Kathrin Sass) watched and promptly has a heart attack and goes into a coma. Eight months later (which is after the Wall falls), she wakes up, but any excitement will give her another heart attack and kill her. In order to save his mother the shock of a capatalistic government, Alex tries to make her believe that her country is still communist by any means necessary.

The general concept of this is very intriguing-a concept that could be bound for hilarity. It isn't, however. Instead, it goes onto a completely different path, one that works pretty well. The lengths that Alex goes to in able to keep his mother alive is pretty extraordinary. However, making this movie into a drama obviously leads to overdramatic acting, which is unfortunately what we get here. However, Sass's acting (especially when she doesn't even speak) is amazing. Good bye, Lenin! is a good movie when it doesn't try to be overly dramatic.

Rated R for brief language and sexuality.

Review Date: April 24, 2004