Soderbergh Marathon: Part 7

Intro

The Good German (2006)

Much like I am, it is very clear that Steven Soderbergh loves film noirs.  Much like him, I am sure if I was a director who could do anything I wanted, I would attempt to make a film noir myself, although I would probably go more in the direction of a movie like Brick than Soderbergh's approach.  The Good German is Soderbergh's ode to film noirs.

Unfortunately, it's not a great movie.  It's a matter of style over substance, which actually I wouldn't think would be a huge issue in a film noir movie.  In the best of them, there's substance, but clearly the defining aspect of a film noir is the style.  Soderbergh painstakingly and lovingly creates a movie that probably could have been made in the 40s.

Or least he attempts to make it look like it could have been made in the 40s, in the way it looks and the way he shoots the movie.  It's black-and-white of course.  This is clearly not a movie that gets made without George Clooney starring in it.  How many black-and-white film noirs are being made nowadays?

As far as the casting is concerned, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett seem like the could fit right in with as 40s movie stars.  Blanchett in particular definitely seems like she would have been a Gene Tierney or Lauren Bacall if she was born in a different time period.  Clooney doesn't necessarily fit the style of a film noir hero in the same way that Blanchett does for a femme fatale, but his style of acting would probably work then too.

The same cannot be said for Tobey Maguire, who is just shockingly miscast in this movie.  I don't want to put the entire blame for this movie on him being woefully out of place, but it's possible an actor better suited for this role would make this a good movie.  That sounds like hyperbole, but he's the narrator for the first third of the movie and it just gets the movie off on the wrong foot.

That's the other thing.  The movie, for some reason, changes perspectives and it was not a good decision.  There's an intriguing murder mystery that happens that is completely ruined by changing the narrator.  You want to know who committed the murder and the movie reveals it in a very unsatisfying way.  Just kind of bluntly tells us instead of a discovery.

Ultimately, this movie is worth watching for one thing: how much Soderbergh is able to adhere to looking like a film noir from the 1940s.  But that's not a great reason to watch the movie.  Just watch a film noir from the 1940s instead.

2/4 stars