This could have been a nice movie about post-WW-II West Germany. Instead, it is just a pile of the cheapest, corniest movie clichés around.The story is preposterous. In short: little boy is the good luck charm of a German soccer player. The boy's father, jaundiced from doing time as POW in Russia, bullies the family after his homecoming. However, after just a chit-chat with the local priest, he opens up, the family members find together again, and grumpy dad turns into Mr. Nice overnight. So he borrows the priest's car and he and his son make it just in time to Switzerland to the final match of the 1954's world soccer championship. Naturally, the player spots the boy and wins the championship with the German team.As if this had not been kitsch enough, the sub-plots stink as well. You have the older son who is so rebellious that he joins the communist party in East Berlin - at a time when fugitives from East Germany flooded West Germany. You have the newspaper reporter who just happens to be at the hotel bar when members of the German team (who ignored the curfew) get drunk, the Swiss cleaning woman who lectures the German team's coach - and so on.The dialogs match the corny story - no father in the 1950's would have told his son "to find his style". Most lines are stiff and would have never been said at the time where the story is set.Speaking of sets: Yes, the Ruhr area was in rubble - but Wortmann makes it look like the village from "Monty Python and the holy grail". The newspaper's office looks more like Göring's Ministry of Aviation, the Bern "stadium" looks as fake as it is.In short: "The Bern Miracle" isn't miraculous at all.

In a very moving and unsentimental Drama, Sönke Wortmann brings us the amazing story of the German National Soccer Team, who unexpectedly defeated the Hungarians in the final of the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland. After being a prisoner of war for 9 years, Richard Lubanski comes home to his family, only to find himself in a world, strange and unknown to him. His oldest son Bruno is a communist, who plays Jazz music for a living, his daughter Ingrid helps her mother at the family's bar, and his youngest son Matthias is a soccer fan and a good friend of Helmut Rahn, a player of the German national team. Richard in his embitterment and desperation drives his family apart, and for a long time fails to realize that he's the one responsible for it. In the second plot line, the journalist Paul Ackermann gets the honorable assignment of reporting for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in Switzerland during the World Cup, news not to well received by his wife Annette, who was already planning their honeymoon. She insists on coming with him and during her stay in Switzerland she learns quite a bit about soccer and in the end knows more about it than her husband. The German National team, under Coach Sepp Herberger, is confronted with very difficult opponents and after an embarrassing defeat against the Hungarians, many Germans already see the team's chances gone of entering the next round. Rahn, who got drunk after the loss against Hungary, but learned from his mistakes, and Fritz Walter, the captain of the team, though, both very ambitious players, try to motivate the whole team and eventually they play in the final, once again against the Hungarians. Whether you are a soccer fan or not is of little importance when watching this movie, as it is more about family, friendship and teamwork than about the sport itself. At times moving, at others funny, "Das Wunder von Bern" is a wonderful portrait of Germany after World War II, a desperate nation in desire of a miracle. The young Louis Klamroth gives an extremely good performance, as do Peter Franke, Sascha Göpel and especially Peter Lohmeyer as Richard Lubanski. All in all, an excellent piece of German history. (9.5/10)

As a football fan, this movie appeals to me indeed. It is true-to-history, honestly depicted, filled with genuine and sophisticated acting performances and based on a historical background. The entire plot centers around the boy, Matthias, and tells the story of the 1954 World Cup through his eyes mainly. He makes this movie special and revives the era of the 50s in Germany, a time when this nation was just recovering from the devastation and the scars of WWII. The story is solid and very sincere. The acting is wonderful and the depiction of the contemporary setting is superbly staged. I can just recommend this movie to all football fans and anyone who enjoys pervasive stories that provide first class entertainment.

I am a German, but grew up in Canada and the States. So I don't understand the small details of German culture or history. However, I found the movie extremely moving. What moved me was that I finally understood what happened in Germany during that period. My grandfather was also a prisoner in Russia because he was a capitalist (did not serve in the Germany Army) and my father would not talk about that period in German history. Sadly as my father passed away five years ago that piece of history was forever lost to me. Hence my appreciation of the movie! Additionally I found this movie well done because it paid attention to the small details. If this movie can be critiqued it is because some could construe the movie as being a bit to ra-ra hurrah. But frankly, why not. We all need to be able to ra-ra hurrah sometimes, and that was the focus of the movie. To ra-ra and feel good about it, when it seems that there is no future!