one of the best films I've seen

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2007)

This movie paints the creepy picture of what it is like to live in a state where Big Brother is always watching (or at least listening). It lives off of a very well-written script, characters with a lot of depth and different facets. And it gets along without seeming key ingredients such as action scenes, which seem to make up most of the films we see today.
This movie is a textbook example (in the best sense) of how to build up story arcs, tension, and suspense. Despite its runtime (well over two hours) and its virtual non-existence of action, gore and special effects, the film is not boring for a second. While action and gore are absent, the film is not free of violence. The interrogation scene at the beginning where the prisoner is deprived of sleep until he breaks down displays this type of violence most visually. It appears more subtly throughout the movie whenever the Stasi invades Dreyman's privacy and listening to his conversations. However, it never takes any spectacular dimension.
"The Lives of the Others" shows that films don't need spectacle to be spectacular, as long as the other ingredients that drive narration (script and acting, in particular) are as well-crafted as they are in this film.