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Good Bye, Lenin!

2003

Wolfgang Becker

Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon ...

7.6

77,323

Drama. Comedy October 1989 was a bad time to fall into a coma if you lived in East Germany -- and this is precisely what happens to Alex's proudly socialist mother. Alex has a big problem on his hands when she suddenly awakens eight months later. Her heart is so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her beloved East Germany? To save his mother, Alex ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"[A] clever, poignant little movie (...) that delivers the shock of the new and the shock of the old (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"'Goodbye, Lenin!' is a comedy, but a peculiar one. Peculiar, because it never quite addresses the self-deception which causes Christiane to support the communist regime in the first place (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Elvis Mitchell The New York Times	"There are a few bright jokes and sharp observations in the sentimental 'Lenin!' (...) By the time the picture's final note about German reunification is struck, 'Lenin!' has raised a wall of indifference for the audience."
		Olly Richards Empire	"An ingenious little idea that is funny, moving and - gasp! - even makes you think (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Denby The New Yorker	"'Goodbye, Lenin!' is often drab—the color is washed out, the lighting flat. Yet the movie is sweetly enjoyable as a sardonic elegy for a dream that went bust."
		Ed Gonzalez Slant	"In the end, 'Good Bye, Lenin!' works so well because Becker playfully likens Germany’s East-West split and political upheavals to the sort of traumas that tear families apart (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		James Berardinelli ReelViews	"The film asks all sorts of unanswered (and perhaps unanswerable) questions about how much right one person has to define the reality of another (...) The actors all do fine jobs"
		Nathan Rabin AV Club	"A tricky but surprisingly successful blend of goofy political farce and sober family drama"
		Tom Charity Time Out	"Touching, beautifully acted (...) The film takes care to establish political context and family dynamics."

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