The Good German - a flawed experiment?

The Good German – 2.5/5

In which director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich) teams up with his best pal George Clooney again (having already directed him in Out of Sight, Solaris, Oceans Eleven and Twelve). This time they’re attempting a 40s film noir/thriller – not just a 40s set thriller, but one as if made in the 40s (albeit with added sex and swearing). This is a film that seeks to set itself alongside greats like Casablanca, The Third Man or The Maltese Falcon. As such it makes an interesting companion piece to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow which tried a similar experiment with sci-fi serials of the 30s and 40s.

The plot follows a war correspondent (Clooney) in Berlin for the Potsdam Peace Conference. His driver (Maguire) is a soldier on the make and into anything that will bring a bit of money, and is also involved with local girl and old flame of Clooney’s (Blanchett). Being an attempted noir the plot then takes many twists and turns, in this case around war crime trials, rocket scientists and murder.

In looks, the film nails it to perfection – from the 40s Warner Brothers logo at the start of the opening credits, to the dodgy back projection of the car rides and gorgeous black and white photography and use of genuine newsreel footage of Berlin immediately post-war. The last scene, on a rain-drenched airstrip is a direct and rather clumsy echo of Casablanca. The score also sound like it could have come from the period. And at heart there is an intriguing mystery plot that would not be out of place in any film noir. Intriguing, but not compelling.

Clooney and Cate Blanchett are OK, but somewhat disappointing. They look the part, but both rather underplay for a noir. Blanchett (usually so reliable) in particular is curiously unalluring in the femme fatale role, whilst Clooney lacks his usual charisma and heart. All of which makes you wonder how much better a job Bogart and Bacall in their prime might have made of this. Only Tobey Maguire, taking a trip to the dark side before his next outing as Spiderman, conveys the necessary vim in his role, and the film struggles a bit after his early exit. Motivations for most of the characters are left a bit unclear and confusing even at the end, and ultimately, unlike the films it emulates, there is nobody (however tarnished) that you’re rooting for at the end. The confusion goes further – whereas many thrillers of the 40s would have the hero giving the narrative at points, The Good German can’t seem to decide who the hero is, and Maguire, Clooney and Blanchett all get their own narration at different points.

However, the film’s main fault, which might explain the difficulties the actors had, is its basic conceit – to marry 40s noir thriller to modern sensibilities about the war. Yes, there are noir-ish elements to wheeling and dealing by the Americans and Russians to get their hands on German rockets scientists, but the spectre which looms so large behind this is that of the holocaust and Nazi war crimes. The subject is just too big for the genre. Noir does deal with the darker sides of life, but it is fundamentally about entertainment – it should zip you through numerous twists and turns and moral ambiguities, its characters are usually all compromised in some way, but the goodies at least have heart. It seems to me that there are no moral ambiguities about Nazi war crimes, and while the film does raise interesting questions about what might be justifiable/understandable/forgivable in order to survive, it picks the wrong genre in which to explore them. Knowing what we do of the holocaust, such matters have to be handled respectfully, but this fits ill with the 40s thriller. Thus, in terms of genre the film is leaden when it should zip and in terms of subject it never really gets to grips with it.

It’s almost as if this film asks what would happen if you crossed Casablanca with Schindler’s List or perhaps closer to the mark, The Pianist. Unfortunately, the answer is rather a confused mess – an intriguing, but fundamentally flawed experiment.