movieinthepark.blogspot.com

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2011)

The lives of Others. A striking drama concerning an agent (Ulrich Mühe) of the Eastern Germany Stasi and the man he is spying, a famous writer (Sebastian Koch). The plot is top quality, very well written and captivating. The Stasi suspects of Dreyman (the writer)'s political position, and as the influent person he is, his house is immediately wired and all his steps and breaths are controlled. The agent in charge of the operation, agent Wiesler, is this very tough, cold and incredibly loyal to the government, who slowly starts gaining sympathy towards the Dreyman and his wife, an actress who was keeping a sexual relationship with the minister, afraid to lose her job and reputation, and note that this minister was the one who had ordered the whole operation concerning Dreyman. Wiesler slowly falls back and suddenly, when a friends "commits suicide", Dreyman starts planning to write an article about the strange suiciding rate taking place in Eastern Germany, to be sent to the western press. Wiesler covers the whole thing, pretending they were preparing a piece, until the article arrives to West Germany as a bomb and invades the media. In fact, one o the best German movies I've seen, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (both director and writer) actually surprised me, questioning how was it possible to succeed this with The Tourist (2010). One time job? I hope not, but this proves that cast doesn't always have to mean something, it might just well be another crappy American movie. 8/10