German writer-director Wolfgang Becker creates an intriguing story of a family traumatized by politics, then lets it drift off into an elaborate sitcom-style hoax ...

| Jun 29, 2022

Non-Germans will certainly get the essence of the humor but may find the movie long and repetitive.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2004

Charming and eventually poignant.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | May 13, 2004

It is a sweethearted comedy about the fall of Communism and the lingering nostalgia for an East Germany that no longer exists.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 22, 2004

The film seems overlong and drawn out, with variations on the same joke occurring throughout.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 11, 2004

Watching Becker invent new challenges and new solutions in scene after scene makes Good Bye, Lenin! a joyous show, blurred by tears of sympathy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 2, 2004

It is no doubt filled with references and in-jokes we do not quite understand. But the central idea travels well.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 26, 2004

Good Bye, Lenin! beautifully mixes comedy, sentimentality, and cynicism.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 26, 2004

Becker ably milks the premise for irony and amusement.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 26, 2004

A deft balance of wistful family drama and drollery.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2004

Like the East German pickles Alex finds for his mother, it's a tasty but evasive treat, no matter what your taste in politics or movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2004

Combination of comedy and gravity is certainly common enough, but it requires a sure hand and perceptible intent. This screenplay has some neat touches, but it never makes up its mind.

Full Review | Mar 21, 2004

Beneath the family saga and easy digs at the tackiness of Western consumer culture, Becker presents a serious critique of authoritarianism and propaganda.

Full Review | Mar 19, 2004

Becker handles the film's comedy with fluency ... but he's even better when it comes to the story's more wistful dramatic elements.

| Mar 19, 2004

Anyone who has ever longed for the good ol' days -- even the ones that weren't so good -- will find resonance in this well-told and well-acted parable of family and political unification.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 19, 2004

A film that's ostensibly about politics ... turns out to be a love story.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 19, 2004

It's mainly a hunt for ironies, usually playful but occasionally poignant, and the search is definitely successful enough to merit our attention -- although maybe not the two-hour running time.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 19, 2004

The impulses to entertain and enlighten are at odds here, and the final result ends up landing somewhere in between: smart, funny, but rarely both at the same time.

| Original Score: B | Mar 18, 2004

Deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 12, 2004

Well-acted by Sass and the very likable Brhl.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 12, 2004