Netflix Review!! THE GOOD GERMAN (2006, dir. Steven Soderbergh)

Wow. Ok. Let's start with what was good about this movie. Honestly, it's a beautiful film. It borrows a lot of techniques from the films that inspired it. The wipes. The back projection. The camera making sharp movements to reveal action. Nicely blocked scenes between actors. The production design all around thumbs up. The music (by Thomas Newman) starts out distracting and then settles into a very nice mood. George Clooney could put a plastic bag over his head and still act his way out of something like this. Not because he's an especially phenomenal actor but because he has an air of self-possession that makes him immune to things like impossible beat changes and bizarre dialogue. He looks great. Cate Blanchett kind of looks great when Soderbergh doesn't surrender to shooting her from a stlye-appropriate but rather unflattering angle. An angle that makes her look horse-like. So overall... looks great, Steven! Congrats! You have seen movies that are better than the movies you are making and we applaud you. Huzzah!

What's wrong with it... First off, Tobey Maguire. BAD. Bad in this movie. He's impossibly miscast in his role. It's actually distracting how hateful he is. Yes. Yes. The character is reprehensible. But people like Aaron Eckhart or Robert Downey, Jr. can play unlikeable and still retain a watchability that Maguire sacrifices almost immediately. My guess. He was directed poorly. "Um... REALLY angry, Tobey... Good... More yelling next time.. You're BAD!" Once his character gets killed off there is a leap of happiness in your soul. A happiness rooted in the hope that we might move on to something interesting. We don't really. The narrative is byzantine and pretty yawn-inducing. For the sake of mystery Soderbergh never grounds us in the struggle of the characters. Even if it is supposed to be an exsistential struggle, we are still poured tall glass after tall glass of exposition until we are significantly wasted on not caring. Soderbergh is still attempting to reconcile his narratives with his ever-changing, always-imitating styles. I am just not completely sold on him writing his own stuff. I think at some point he will do a very masterful film. A film that makes me or any other film lover go "Ah... that's what he's been trying to do." The Good German is not that movie.

Bottom Line: Only if you dying to know how Soderbergh utilizes his extensive knowledge of film. There's a lot of unnecessary violent sex and use of the word "Fuck". It's a downer and by the 20-minute mark you know exactly how the whole thing will play out.