Style is everything in this soulless film. Clooney delivers nothing other than Clooney, Blanchett her usual wooden hot as ice whore and Toby Maguire a foul mouthed scumbag who thankfully is made redundant but, not quite soon enough. The WW11 40's settings look great in crisp B/W (well, color drained b/w). The Ted McCord and James Wong Howe (etc) styled photography is the real star and without this I would have fallen asleep as did others. Cigarette company's must throw bags of money at film-makers who move into this era, as my eyes and lungs were burning just watching the unrealistic depiction of all those cancer sticks burning at every minute. It's difficult to believe this screenplay was adapted by the same writer as 'Quiz Show' - what a come down or was it the fault of the novelist who's one and only work this was?. Not one character has any redeeming qualities - leaving us no-one to care for. This also leaves the viewer with little interest in following an overly convoluted story. Thomas Newman's music score leans towards being a neat copy of Bernard Herman's 'Kane', Psycho', (etc) with Steven Soderbergh's direction modeled along the lines of Wells, Hitchcock, et all. While most of the film is technically good looking some scene's are let down by vastly over-lit sets. Soderbergh also acquits himself as a most capable cinematographer (as Peter Andrews?) but, the story is cold beyond any warming. Could have been improved greatly with better writing. Looks like most audiences wisely knew to stay away - making it little wonder the money did not flow back into this huge budget, cloned, box office bomb....

As it happened many times in film history, a film made by great artists, written from a book based on historical events, is ending in a tasteless pudding. Steven Soderbergh made many good films, often a tribute to many genres like "film noir", science fiction, cops and robbers, etc. We're having a nice cast in this film, and none of them should be proud of the result. It's tough not liking Clooney and Blanchett. and here, they are a strange couple. Probably because their relation in the story started before the Second World War, and we don't know much of it. It's not helping to try to understand where their love affair is fitting in all this complex historical scheme. Here, I guess the problem is the screenplay, based on Joseph Kanon's novel which counts more than 500 pages. It's complicated to make a story in a film lasting 105 minutes. The music is nice, the cinematography all in black and white is also very beautiful. But when the film is ending, you just try to figure out what went wrong. Apart the screenplay, we should also ask why choosing Blanchett to play this character. Her German husband seems too young for her, her accent is not credible. And her eyes are covered with dark lenses, which are giving the actress a strange look, like if she's not feeling well. Maybe she did. It's not completely bad, but after watching it, it's easy to understand why it was a commercial flop, probably explaining why Clooney and Soderbergh had to make "Ocean's 13".

A gumshoe story set in a desolate, immediate post-war Berlin rather than the more usual sunny and prosperous L.A. From the first frame the film mimics the look-and-feel of a 1940's movie. After Tully (Tobey Maguire) picks up Jake Geismer (George Clooney) at Berlin Airport a wipe signals the transition to the next scene driving through the bomb-shattered streets of Berlin. CGI makes anything look real. So the obvious choice to dispense with green- screening in favour of a projected backdrop of grainy film must be deliberate. All of which gives an ambiance of a 1940's movie, besides a sense of time and place. Some scenes, however, don't observe the sensitivities of the 1940 – anal sex most notably. Being a detective story the plot line is inevitably murky and enigmatic. Coupling this with a love triangle makes the plot line more complex still. Yet, it remains sufficiently comprehensible to be intriguing rather than baffling. That said, it's no lazy watch, you need to pay attention and make mental note of what's happening. Performances are good all round. Tobey Maguire's portrayal of Tully, the baby-faced GI who knows everything, is polished and initially stands out the most because he plays such a brash character compared to the rest of the cast. George Clooney comes over as world-weary and worldly wise – a sharp contrast to Tully. Except when Geismer stumbles across Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) the old flame he's been looking for. The best line in the film is spoken by an extra. Geismer is watching two youths at the water's edge playing with a model boat. The unnamed officer walks up from behind and comments, 'kids, two months ago they were shooting at us.' This sort of thing throughout sustains the film's sense of time and place. The Good German is a nice piece of teamwork that pulls together the screenplay, cinematography, acting, et al to make a very watchable film.

In the past ten years or so Steven Soderbergh has become a director who does what he wants, when he wants. He makes the film he wants to make and he does it exactly how he feels it needs to be done, no matter how unorthodox or inconvenient. In 2004 he made Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to one of his biggest blockbuster successes. Then in 2005 he made the film Bubble, a small independently released film with no professional actors. Then in 2006 he picks his stars back up and makes The Good German with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. And yet he does this film in a completely unconditional way that somewhat negates the star power that the film has.The Good German is about an army general who is visiting Berlin shortly after World War II. What begins as a routine mission quickly becomes a complicated murder mystery involving his mistress and his driver. The plot of the film is straightforward enough, but what makes this film different is the significant style choices that Soderbergh makes. The Good German is essentially an homage to classic film noir and war time thrillers. Soderbergh does everything in his power to make this film seem as if it were made in the 40's or 50's and if it didn't have all of the big names attached to it I might believe it really was that old. Sadly, this film goes all the way for style, and leaves behind all of its substance. Thus, after we become acquainted with the film's style we are left to watch a dull and hollow story unfold, never becoming more than a typical Hollywood junk film trying to be something it's not.The Good German is a film that deserves all the style points it gets. I commend Soderbergh for his efforts in making this pastiche film with the nuances he wanted. He got it just right, but to the extent where it takes away from everything else about the film (i.e. the story). This is a story that goes nowhere and is not interesting or compelling in the slightest. It's a mystery without mystery. I never found myself excited about finding out the answers to the questions the film raises. It is sloppy in its delivery of a hard hitting story and lazy in the way it develops said story. I tried my best to get into the film towards the beginning, but quickly found myself losing interest. Also, the film never improves. It's climax is terribly underwhelming and its conclusion is completely forgettable. From start to finish The Good German is all style and no substance.If you're a Soderbergh fan I might recommend this if you truly care about seeing everything the man has ever done. If you're a mild fan then there are plenty of other films from him that you should check out. This is definitely way towards the bottom in my Soderbergh recommendation list. Not including the film's acute style, it's easily one of his poorest efforts.