Gripping!! Great both for the realism and story

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2010)

This film is just brilliant. It gives an instructive and frightening representation of life in the former eastern bloc. If you are interested in history and especially the cold war you will find The Lives of Others is fantastic. Very providing of fact about how things were in those times. It really captures the tone and gives an amazingly realistic descriptions of the totalitarian rule of East Germany. They want to show you how it worked back there, this film is definitely not any anticommunist propaganda. So well done it feels like it really was made back then. But the film doesn't just succeed in the presentation of the atmosphere and factual representation. It also provides a great story with gripping characters. The acting is absolutely brilliant, Ulrich Mühe is amazing in the lead. The story is one which really builds up the longer it goes. Not meaning that it starts slow absolutely not, it starts out great and just keeps getting better and better. The story keeps going up never tripping over, makes it brilliantly all the way to the end. A rare story that manages to hold up all the way. The plot is so good and well executed. You are never sure where it's heading and you always sit on the edge longing to find out what will happen next. The films tone and pace is very sad, cheerless and slow moving. This works nothing less than perfect. Still it happens things of importance almost all the time so it is a film which requires you to pay attention to keep up with what is happening. However it won't be a problem to maintain concentration at a film so fantastic as this one. The Lives of Others is just as much entertainment as an experience. What they show you really makes one think. Might call it somewhat of an eye opener if you are not well into the subject. Thought-provoking and relevant even today. Something you really ought to see. Brilliant 8/10