Fatherland is a simple movie, it doesn't touch on particularly deep themes and there's not a whole lot of depth or subtlety to the plot, but therein lies the charm.Seeing Fatherland reminded me of Threads (another made-for-TV film from a decade earlier) in that they're both simple films that somehow manage to have more coherent scene structure and pacing than many films released today.Isn't it lovely when what's shown on screen makes a bit of basic sense?The overdubbed child actor and heavy handed third act does bring down the overall impression however.

Fatherland is the adaptation of the Robert Harris bestseller which takes place in an alternate history where the Nazis were triumphant in the second world war.The story begins in Nazi Germany in the run up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. The plot follows detective Xavier March (Rutger Hauer) investigating the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi. March meets with Charlie Maguire (Miranda Richardson) a visiting female US journalist who is mixed up with another murder and is determined to investigate the case and teams up with March. It looks like the victims were high ranking Nazi officials who decades ago were involved in planning the Holocaust.Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson are good in the lead roles. There is a roll call of British character actors in this HBO film from Micheal Kitchen, Peter Vaughan, John Shrapnel and Jean Marsh making a chilling cameo. Some of the actors are wasted in their brief roles.The film was shot in Prague and there were special effects use to make it look like a triumphant Berlin. The adaptation gets rid of some of the nuances and side plots of the Harris novel such as Nazi era European Community and becomes very much a staid thriller where someone wishes to keep the secrets of the past a secret.In doing so what makes the book standout has gone and what we have is a standard, made for television thriller, well made well acted but nothing out of the ordinary.

i like this "how would the world look like if ..." (in any direction) and we have a good example here - what if the Germans had not lost the second world war (and the description on this site is not correct - they have not won - they just have not lost in the movie)? how would the society look like, the people, the politics... yes, in the movie the Americans do not know about the extermination of the Jews, while in reality they refused to bomb the railways leading to the camps, and yes, i have a problem with thisbut i think that the mood in the movie and the wonderful acting did compensate me for this mistake. i would like to know more about this world, about life in other countries in it... and a movie able to do this is a hot candidate for my favorites listwatch it if you like alternative settings and movies with well made mood

Fatherland by Robert Harris is truly one of the best novels ever written and I did find myself thinking "this could be a great film one day" many times while reading it. I was therefore delighted to see it made but disappointed with the result.Most of the actors work for me - this is a film that should be cast with Europeans - especially Rutger Hauer (ever growing in stature as an older statesman) as Xavier March. But one big flaw is the lack of chemistry with Richardsson.But this is a book that deserved the big screen and a well known director. Lets hope for a re-make.It must also be said that one of the most disappointing facts about the movie is how the film never really portrays the Berlin and Germany of a victorious Third Reich well enough. The monumental architecture that is so well described in Harris's book (taken from the historical facts of Hitler and Speer's plans) never really gets a fair showing. Just imagine what Industrial Light and Magic could do with this.