The Good German (2006)

Story: Captain Jacob Geismer (George Clooney) returns to Berlin to cover the peace conference at Potsdam at the end of WWII. His driver, Tully (Tobey Maguire), is suspicious. When Jake discovers that Tully is going around with his old girl, Lena (Cate Blanchett), it only looks all the more suspicious to Jake. By the time a body turns up at the conference, Jake's got one heck of a mystery on his hands.

The movie I saw the day after Children of Men obviously had a tough act to follow. I couldn't bring myself to turn on the TV, and popping in a DVD was out of the question. Even so, we made our way over the ye olde Bytowne.

I gotta say - this movie was a lot of fun to watch. Few directors can infuse their films with energy the way Steven Soderbergh does, and I'm pretty sure the fact that he acts as his own cinematographer and editor (under pseudonyms) has something to do with it. All that hoopla about 40s technology and imitating a more stagey style of acting is pretty soon forgotten. The film moves along at a good clip, and it's easy to enjoy.

Oh, Thomas Newman. First Little Children and now this? It's like you've been listening to my complaints. Your big, booming score recalled Bernard Herrmann in the best possible way.

I didn't write this review yesterday because I realized that beyond the above, I didn't have much else to say. I was entertained by what I saw up the screen, and I'm certain that I will enjoy seeing it a second and third time. But, to me, it's like Ocean's Eleven. It's fun and well done. Soderbergh's equally adept with that caper as he is with this noir, but it's not a heady movie. It's noir, to be sure, but it's still light. On the other hand, it's quite the feat to make a noir that isn't heavy.

Basically, it's fun and the topic can be serious, but the movie doesn't really take itself that seriously. It's a diversion in the best sense of the word. B+