(Yes Rainy, apparently there is such a thing, but in this film, there was only one...)

Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are, in my opinion, the new hot couple in Hollywood, and i mean that strictly in the platonic sense! In the past 5 years they've brought us gems such as;
Solaris, Psychologist on Space Station,
Welcome to Collinwood, a comedy about bumbling burglars,
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, a plausible alternative explanation for the double life of Chuck Barris (AWESOME FILM!),
Syriana That socio-political/economic study on the effect of a big oil company
The Oceans flicks, 11 through 13.

Some of you might not have seen all of these films, and some of you say that Oceans twelve wasn't so lekker, but these films aren't up for discussion, the Good German is.

I fell in love with Cate Blanchett again after this movie, her cool and calculated portrayal of Lena Brandt (a fictional character from what i could gather) was wonderful, you want to believe her but you don't know if you should. You want to moer her and kiss her at the same time. Her make up, plus the grainy effect added to this Black & White film made her feel rather distant and strangely provocative.
Clooney is the very dashing, very debonair war correspondent, but like most journalists, he's useless in a fight. His performance, as per usual, is character specific and you don't doubt it for a second. Perhaps he underplayed at parts, but it was purely situational.

On the surface, this appears to be a murder investigation, but since it is labeled as Film noir, you know it's not going to be that simple. As a huge fan of the John Huston noir's (The Maltese Falcon, The Asphalt Jungle) I'm afraid that they didn't quite pull it off. It was a good film, but if you knew anything of WWII, you'd know something is fishy from the very beginning and you could work out the twist at the end. It was a decent attempt, but i got frustrated with Soderbergh and Clooney trying to explain what was happening the whole time, and they used obvious plot devices to lead the viewer (I also got frustrated by the loud prick and his wife next to me, who fell ASLEEP and then chowed an apple to keep awake, ever see Blinky go into powerball mode?). If they (Clooney and Soderbergh) cut the crap, the movie would've been more dramatic, and the climax wouldn't have been ruined by the arduous build-up. It's as if for all intents and purposes they had no faith in their viewers.

Despite this, it's still a good story. Soderbergh did the cinematography under a pseudonym, so you just know that visually it was excellent, never too dark, never too bright, but even the hues added to the story telling, for example Lena was never confronted in the light, but she never smiled in the dark.

Much like Good Night and Good Luck, they also used stock footage of Stalin and Churchill at the Potsdam conference, so i kinda got a kick out of that.

If you like art house stuff, you'll like this, BUT there is very little action and the intrigue manages to take a dip every now and then, I enjoyed it, but you have to be in the mood.