Dir.
Steven Soderbergh , US, 2006, 108 mins
Cast: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire
Review by Carol Allen
Berlin, 1945, immediately after World War
II. Clooney plays Jacob/Jake Geismer, an American war correspondent
returning to the city, where he once managed a news bureau,
to cover the Potsdam conference, at which the Allies, including
the USSR, are in the process of dividing up the German spoils.
The place is much changed from when he last knew it, when
he was in love with the beautiful Lena Brandt (Blanchett).
Now it's a city in ruins, where everyone has a secret and
everyone is on the make, including Jake's allotted military
driver Corporal Tully (Maguire). Ostensibly a wholesome all
American country boy, Tully is into every black market racket
and can get you anything for a price. To Jake's shocked surprise,
he also has a girlfriend, Jake's ex Lena, who like the city
is irrevocably changed by the war. And when Tully is found
murdered in the Russian zone, the plot, as they say, thickens
and skeletons come popping out of cupboards by the dozen.
Soderbergh's attempt at making a black and white film-noir
thriller is breathtaking in terms of visually and dramatically
recreating the period and style. The presumably archive footage
of Berlin in war torn ruins and that of Churchill, Truman
and Stalin is effectively blended with the high contrast,
theatrically lit black and white footage of the drama. The
atmosphere of intrigue in the divided city and the whole
ambience of post-war Berlin with its shattered streets and
sleazy bars is convincing. And everyone of course smokes
like a chimney.
It's an unusual role for Maguire as the self-interested
wide boy retaining a certain innocence in his self serving.
He's very good in the role and it's a pity he disappears
so early. Blanchett is dazzling as usual, somewhat well dressed
for her material circumstances, scraping a living as best
she can in the ruined city, but that is part of the film
noir, leading-lady tradition. She's appropriately enigmatic
and her secrets are intriguingly revealed one by one. Clooney
exudes both journalistic cynicism along with personal obsession
over Lena, and gets beaten up an awful lot. The name of the
character implies that he is Jewish but if he is, it's never
mentioned, which is a bit puzzling in view of the context,
where you would expect it to be important. He also doesn't
appear to be very effective in terms of the job he's been
sent to do. Apart from one foiled attempt to attend the conference,
when he's turned away because his press card has been stolen
and he discovers Tully's body instead, his journalistic nose
doesn't come into play much except as a detective, which
is a shame as it's an interesting time in history and it
would have been useful to have had more of the political
background to the story.
Another drawback is that the other characters in the story
are not always as well defined as the principals, which sometimes
make the proceedings a bit difficult to follow. There seem
to be a lot of people with murderous or other intent doing
things for no clear reason.
What is however most disappointing is the fact that the
glittering beauty of the style is so paramount, that the
actors and their characters often seem to be corseted into
it and to be serving the style rather than driving the story:
tail wagging the dog, as it were. An example being a homage
to Casablanca in the final scene between Jake and Lena. It's
visually effective but the knowingness of it is emotionally
inappropriate.
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