Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Good German
2006
**
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Tony Curran, Leland Orser, Jack Thompson, Robin Weigert

This experimental black and white drama recreates the look and feel of the Golden Age of Hollywood by employing the filmmaking techniques and style of the time (cinematography, sound, back projection, score, titles, etc.). The events take place at the end of World War 2. An American correspondent arrives in Berlin to cover a peace conference when he runs into Lena, his secretive old flame who is at the centre of a complicated espionage mystery. Soderbergh produces an authentic pastiche, but what exactly is the point of this exercise? Who needs to see a technically outdated film that joylessly retreads the steps of the genuine classics, Casablanca and The Third Man. The story (from Joseph Kanon's novel) is an overelaborate bore. Clooney and Blanchett have no chemistry. He's wooden and charmless, she's just plain awful.