Movie Pick: "Goodbye Lenin!"
It's the weekend! YAY! After the last few intense days -- everything from saying goodbye to John Paul II to saying hello to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall -- I need to let my brain decompress. (Dissertation? What's that?)
I'd heard a lot of buzz about "Goodbye Lenin!" on campus, so I finally went to Blockbuster and rented the DVD.
It is one of the most charming films I've seen in a long, long time. Maybe I'll find time to write up a real movie review (yeah right, in this world of dissertation mayhem), but for now let me just say that the plot is brilliant.
In a nutshell, Alex's mother, a devoted member of East Germany's ruling party, suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma right before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. When she wakes 8 months later, sweeping changes have transformed Germany. But, in his effort to prevent his now-frail mother from suffering a possibly fatal relapse from shock, Alex has to keep her from finding out that there is no more East Germany! Also, Daniel Brühl as the frantic, devoted young son Alex Kerner and Katrin Saß as his mother Christiane turn in two beautiful performances. Florian Lukas also hams it up as Denis, Alex's buddy who helps him keep up the improbable (and improbably hilarious and touching) charade.
Here's the fabulous website -- but don't settle for just that; go rent the film!
In German with subtitles, but don't let that scare you away, please! "Goodbye Lenin!" runs 121 minutes and is barely rated R for language and brief nudity. But really, language wasn't nearly as naughty as your run-of-the-mill "Die Hard" flick.
And at any rate, I just saw "Sin City" and found "Goodbye Lenin!" a lot more engaging.