Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

It's 1945 Berlin. The city is occupied by the Allies but Japan is still fighting on. American military correspondent Jake Geismer (George Clooney) arrives to cover the upcoming Potsdam peace conference. Tully (Tobey Maguire) is assigned to be his driver. Tully is happy to be working in the motor pool where he can deal in the black market. Lena (Cate Blanchett) is sleeping with him in the hopes of getting out of Germany. Tully gets beaten up by someone looking for Emil Brandt. Lena reveals that Emil is her presumed-dead husband. Jake is shocked to see Lena who was his stringer in pre-war Berlin. General Sikorsky and the Soviets are also looking for Emil. Tully does a deal and ends up dead with a belt filled with money in the Russian zone.This Steven Soderbergh film is done entirely in black and white. It references back to the noir espionage films. The first half is interesting although Tobey Maguire's death does throw it off. He was the protagonist until he's not. There is a few layers of mysteries to Lena but the final layer is less compelling than Soderbergh thinks it is. There are some interesting things happening in this movie but the second half stumbles in a muddle of less-than-compelling reveals.

Spoiler warningI am very bothered by this film. I just saw the movie and they completed gutted the book. Took out the less pleasant aspects of the book so that the movie would be more like Casablanca. Instead of what it really was. A story about a murder cover up and a conspiracy to white wash Nazi scientists.' In the book no one cares about Tully's death and in fact the government does it sweep it under the rung. Emil is a S.S Nazi member who tries to kill jack over the notes about the camp. Lena turning other Jewish people to the Gestapo is treated to casually. In the book the women who did that get's tried as a war criminal. This movies changes major plot points to make it more neat and tidy. They took a great book and turned it in to pretentious Oscar bait. And it's terrible.

Absolutely wretched and self consciously arty this lame exercise in vanity tries to recreate the feeling of great 40's films but with supposedly modern dialogue. Apparently this means the actors swear every other word, which doesn't make it contemporary just dull and lacking in imagination. Cate Blanchett is okay although she has certainly been better elsewhere, but George Clooney is arch and affected while Tobey Maguire, usually a fine actor when properly cast is completely miscast, out of his depth and awful. Some of the cinematography is striking but that's hardly enough to make this turgid, poorly directed misfire worth sitting through.A dog from the word go!

I was surely not thrilled in the movie by the story, by the acting, and certainly by the flow of the events. It seemed to me like a remake of The Third Man where the suspense was at a much higher level. Most of what happens there happens here as well without any surprise. I cannot even imagine this not being evident to the director. Maybe George Clooney factor was here due to his all movie long glances. He looks like he forgot the line he was supposed to say and the way long mysticism trying to be created by Blanchet. Anyway I was expecting something better. Just had to live through with it until the end. Could have made more of my Sunday evening by watching something else.