a strikingly human suspense-drama about the changes that can come in good people

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2007)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has here one of the better debut features I've seen in recent years, and until the last ten minutes has on his hands a tough, powerful gem out of Germany. His film brings memories of films like the Conversation, where a surveillance man got changed into a paranoid, The Trial, where the stark, bleak, disparaging mood strikes a chord in every facet of life, and even to a lesser degree the Pianist, where there can be some spark of goodness reached at men in the dead mess of bureaucracy through the power of art, and human expression. So much that we see the East German socialists do, the ones in the highest ranks of over-dominant power, is to make sure everyone is in check by means of fear and tactics of interrogation and surveillance, in The Lives of Others concerns why certain basic freedoms are important, especially in the arts, and that change is not only possible, but paramount for people in bad circumstances.
Such is the case for Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gerdeck), who get put under suspicion for possible co-horting with undesirables (i.e. those of the 'West', and conspirators against the state, not always thinking in the party-lines in short), and get put under constant audio surveillance by the State, specifically agent Weiseler (Ulrich Muhe), who is so detached that he doesn't even have a grin at a joke at the expense of the head of state made by an underling. But as he listens more and more to these people, and their own personal struggles (Christa's unfortunate liaisons with a slob of a minister played by Thomas Thieme), and to how they react to a good friend's suicide- by playing a touching Beethoven tune on the piano- he starts to question what he's doing. Can a man who really listens to this music be good, is asked rhetorically by Georg after playing it. This, plus the whole aspect of change, which is mentioned early in the film, becomes the emotional and suspenseful core of the picture; Georg gets help in smuggling an article about suicide he's written- for which he can't put his own name- and Wiesler becomes an accomplice, but to him for what are the right reasons.
So what starts out as a tale with possible intonations of espionage or whatever turns into a morality story, and where the personal and political meet at different levels but with similar significance. Can one's duty to one's country's methods and ideals be as crucial as expression in art, music, acting, writing? Donnersmarck's thesis is that, more than anything, change, and the choice to change, is a part of this as well, not just for Wiesler, but for Georg, who decides to go out on a very dangerous limb and not only write the article on an illegal typewriter but to send it out with his friends to the West, but Christa as well with her priorities for 'getting by' in this world. She might be a popular actress, but the price she pays is just as dear as he does, and as Georg witnesses a fellow writer go over the edge as part of the 'statistics', it becomes too much. It's a very potent point about the nature of people in this part of the world at that time that being an individual gains much more to the human spirit than rigidly following a set of rules. Whether or not this is based on a true story or not is irrelevant, because, usually, Donnersmarck gets truthful performances from his actors (especially the subtle Muhe) and is true to how it plays out in sort of a triangle fashion.
Now, to say 'usually' because his film isn't completely flawless. The last ten or so minutes, a denouement where everything is made tidy and neatly put together in a sort of contrived way, goes too long and feels out of place with the rest of the picture. Maybe there's much to say about what ambiguity can do, but that would have been more appropriate for what preceded it than the sweet ending that comes out where bittersweet would have done just fine (i.e. ending it right when the Berlin wall falls). Yet, the catharsis, while not totally satisfying, doesn't make things completely cheapened for the experience, which overall is gripping and touching in the ways that matter. One feels for all of the characters, save for those in the high ranks of power like the Minister and Grubitz, especially when Wiesler reaches out for saving just a small piece of humanity in such an oppressive and hopeless civilization. In short, Donnersmarck is definitely a new filmmaker to watch.