How sad is this?

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The performances in "Good Bye Lenin!" are very good by the entire cast, and this is an interesting angle for a German film about the changes in East Berlin after the fall of the Soviet Union. It's two stories, really, the overall one being about a tight-knit family from East Berlin, especially the devotion of a young man for his mother. The family appeared to be much better off than many others in East Berlin before 1980 – about 10 years before the Berlin Wall came down. We don't see the father, a doctor who supposedly abandoned his family and fled the Iron Curtain. The Mutter, played by Katrin Sass, has a mental breakdown. After she is returned home and recovered, she begins devoting her time to all things Soviet as a loyal citizen of the state. Ten years pass, and the devoted son, Alex (played by Daniel Bruhl) is bored with life. The picture we see is one of a great laxity among the populace. It's October 1989, and the people are restless, the economy is in shambles, and the Soviet leaders no longer have the heavy hands to control the people. Mutter suffers a heart attack, just as she sees Alex being taken away by a couple of East German Police where he had been walking in a throng of protesters. The film isn't billed as a comedy, but it has some comedy in it. After eight months, Mutter comes out of her coma. But she isn't to be startled or she could suffer a relapse and die. She isn't given that much of a chance as is. Alex moves her back to their apartment. They have to restore it with the old furnishings. He tries to make things as they were eight months earlier, because all of the changes that have happened would be sure to shock her. The rest of the film shows the efforts, orchestrated by Alex, to have Mutter still think she's living under the shadow of her bellowed Lenin. But how long can he keep her from finding the truth? The last quarter of the film is the best part. The comedy is very good here, the love of family shines through with the characters, and the truth finally comes out, with Mutter dying happily. The film is rated R for nudity and some of the language.

When I first heard about Good Bye, Lenin, I was told it was a comedy. I went into the movie expecting to be laughing a majority of the time. Though it was funny in some parts, I found a good portion of the movie to be rather sad. Good Bye, Lenin tells the story of a boy named Alex whose father fled to East Germany, an event that nearly destroyed the will of his mother. After eight months struggling to get better, Alex's mother returns to the real world and dedicates her life to the DDR. 10 years later Alex's mother has a heart attack which leaves her in a coma for eight months. During this time the DDR and the Berlin wall fall. When his mother wakes up, Alex is warned not to excite her. He decides to recreate the life his mother knew, a time before the wall fell. It starts out as a good plan, but Alex soon realizes that this has taken on a life of its own. He soon starts creating fake newscasts with his friend Denis to help explain the "Westernization" that is happening outside his mother's bedroom window. It is a tragic comedy that explores themes of love, family, and tragedy. I really enjoyed this film. I found what Alex did for his mother to be very sweet, but also kind of crazy. He literally recreates everything that his mother remembers in order to keep her from having another heart attack. What Alex doesn't realize is how hard it will be to keep up the charade. He does this all out of love for his mother. I couldn't even imagine being in his position. I think his actions show how much he loves and cares about his family. He tries as hard as he can to make things as normal as he can. Though that puts a strain on the relationship with his sister and girlfriend, he keeps up the charade to make life easier for his mother. The theme of tragedy is also present throughout the film. Alex has had a difficult life. His father fled to the West when he was very young, and he hasn't seen him in years, his mother falls ill twice, and he is stuck living with his sister and her new boyfriend while their mother receives treatment. Alex tries as hard as he can to help his mother enjoy her life, even while she's on bed rest, but in the end everything is futile. Alex can't save his mother. As his charade gets bigger, it begins to take on a mind of its own, and Alex must become more creative. He works very hard, but in the end it doesn't matter. He loses someone he really cares about, and there is nothing he can do about it. What is really interesting is the way that space is incorporated throughout the film. When first watching it is hard to understand why the director made the choice to include those elements. My theory is that it is a symbol for what Alex wants life to be like. Up in space everything is simple. There are no problems, and it is peaceful. Back on earth, Alex's life is incredibly complicated. He can't escape his problems. Nothing about his life is easy, especially as he continues to grow up. Space represents the life that Alex wishes he could have, and the life that Germany could have if everything was simplified. Overall this film is great. It makes you laugh, cry, and think. There is so much history to be learned too. It is like you're experiencing both east and west Germany at the same time as these people. For someone who was not around when the wall fell, I found it very interesting to see the way people reacted, and how the east became more of a consumer culture based on influence from the West. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to learn about history while also watching great character-driven story.

Throughout the entirety of the film it's clear that Wolfgang Becker is trying to express a very satirical view on the situation of East Germany at this time, yet he strays away from the real issues a bit too much and ends up making the film about the issues within a family. Perhaps this is Becker's way of adding an element of realism to the somewhat surreal situation, showing that amidst the issues that plagued an entire nation or even an entire continent, that every household, every person has their own issues. The comedic take on the issue in itself would make the film seem like a straight-up satire, yet the concept is so absurd that it almost takes away from the satirical aspects, making the film feel like a regular old comedy. Though Becker does express some of these aspects well. One of the most humorous and effective things I remember from the film was the connection between capitalist ideals and the ones of socialism. The main character's sister has a job at Burger King, which to Americans seems like a very normal job for someone struggling by to get, yet it seems very out of place here. Perhaps it's trying to make a statement on the assimilation of western capitalist ideas into a society that was plagued by socialism for so long, and how things can seem so normal to one culture, yet so foreign to another. Another thing, probably the thing Becker did the best, was how people went to such extremes to hide the western aspects of life that were quickly being introduced into their society from the mother. This is one of the best statements Becker makes, satirizing the way that the government tried to block information and censor aspects of culture and life from citizens by having Alex and his group of friends do everything in their power to make sure that the mother does not find out about the reunification. Making fake news programs, getting everyone on board, physically hiding advertisements and any thing that would hint towards a western lifestyle; this is one of the things that Becker did best. Overall, the movie did a pretty good job at expressing the environment of East Germany right before and right after the unification.

One of the finest mother son stories on the celluloid.How far can you go, to save your mother? How much do you love your mother? These questions are inadvertently asked in this film all throughout and by the end our love only increases to our mother as well as the film. To recreate a whole setup as it was 10 years ago, is certainly a humongous task and boy it was done so very believably, thanks to the director Wolfgang Becker who paid attention to the detail and built up the whole film so very believably.Daniel Bruhl as Alex, gave an incredible performance, it was subtle with the mother, he held her so tenderly as if she were a little kid. Katrin Sab, as other Christiane too complemented the performance well. It was a well acted film apart from being a superbly written one. But I loved Daniel Bruhl as Alex in this one more than anyone else. The art direction combined with itself has a humane touch amidst all the details of creating first a period of 1989-1990 and then Alex has to recreate the pre-merged Germany of 1978- 19879 and wow, all was done superbly. When the mother realises that his son has to gone to every extent to make her believe that it was all the same as it was, the son Alex remains unaware and that's when the tears rolled for me. Christiane tells him that she is already aware of what has been happening for past few months, I was moist and numb then. It struck me, deep I say.The cinematography is good, I wish a blu-ray is released for this film, as it deserves a better watch than a mere DVD. Also, to note that this film was an inspiration to many films world over, and in my own place, a blockbuster 'Dookudu' was made out of this. It is a must watch film for many reasons apart from the mother son relationship, even the way Lara (Chuplan Khamatova) and Alex just have a love story as subplot and how good people are, for those with good intentions. When heart is good, all men come to help us. Good intentions are loved by good humans.I loved this film that is made with honest and good intentions. Thanks Wolfgang Becker for this. A 4/5 for sure. Just not yet perfect though, as it slows down at places, despite being extremely interesting for most part.