Achingly real

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2010)

Usually when people call a film a "modern classic," they are not really thinking of the old classics at all. But if it would have been possible to make this film back in Hollywood's Golden Age, it would likely have starred the legendary actors of the day, and would have taken its place in our memory along with the greatest classic films Hollywood has produced. It is that great of a story and that fine of a film experience, speaking to the human condition in the involving way that the great films used to do...
And yet it was not possible to make this film until our own film era, because it deals with the recent (though receding) past of Communist East Germany. One gets the sense when watching "The Lives of Others" that this is THE last great cinematic summation of the pains and passions of the Cold War era. Many great movies about the Cold War era have been made, but somehow this one feels more achingly real than all the rest... not an ironic/comic shrug or a savage political critique, but a measured cry from the heart that gives lasting meaning to the very real sufferings of one nation's people (and any of us who lived through the Cold War, wherever we were).
Others have already noted the tremendous performances and the marvelous screenplay, the haunting musical score and moving final scenes, so there is no need for me to repeat this, except to say along with others: See this movie.