Never Mind the Subtitles; Just Go See It; It's Solid Entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2007)

"The Lives of Others" is one of those movies that is so good, if you are a movie lover, you just want to grab people and tell them to go see it.
I was hesitant to go. I don't like subtitles. I'm not really attracted to grim films about spying in the former East Germany.
But, hey. "Lives of Others" is really excellent, engaging, poignant, thought provoking, unforgettable, with earned moments of beauty and soul. And I laughed several times, too.
Sure, it's set in East Germany, but the characters on screen are so real and so known to you -- I guarantee you've met people like them -- that you'll forget about the foreign setting and just fall into the story.
And it will reward you for doing so.
I can't give it a ten because of its handling of gender. I can't say more or I'd give away plot points. But check out, for example, Vera Wollenberger. Women's role in what lead up to 1989 has been underwritten in post-communist histories. But. That a movie could drop the ball so badly vis-a-vis women and still earn a nine out of ten is testimony to how good the movie is, otherwise.
Really. Go see it.
One last note -- what did the Germans do right that America so often gets wrong? Americans try to make serious films and we end up with self-important, inaccessible confusions like "Syriana." The makers of "Syriana" could have learned a thing or two by watching "The Lives of Others."