Good Bye Lenin! 2003

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Good Bye, Lenin! fares even better as a straightforward story about a mother and son. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A film that's ostensibly about politics ... turns out to be a love story. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: 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. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Charming and eventually poignant. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Good Bye, Lenin! beautifully mixes comedy, sentimentality, and cynicism. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Funny but not a comedy, serious but never overbearing, emotional in an engaging and bittersweet way. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Becker ably milks the premise for irony and amusement. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Watching Becker invent new challenges and new solutions in scene after scene makes Good Bye, Lenin! a joyous show, blurred by tears of sympathy. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A funny and intermittently sharp German satire that musters gentle nostalgia for East German communism while mocking the not-so-distant past. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: 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. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: 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. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: We see what it is like to live in a society whose admittedly rigid and oppressive backbone collapses overnight, along with full employment, the life savings and the trust of the satellite state's citizens. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: The mix of melancholy and possibility that Alex and his generation feel is made real, and moving. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It never quite works as either farce or commentary, and -- like those shabby old socialist goods it salutes -- fills us up without leaving us satisfied. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Wolfgang Becker's social satire has a knobby tone that somewhat mutes its crowd-pleasing ambitions and keeps it from becoming My Big, Fat Life Is Beautiful. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A funny movie that rises above farce to the level of sophisticated satire. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It is not a step-by-step chronicle of German reunification, but it gives a perspective of the time. It's a bonus that this comes as part of an engrossing and well told story. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is no doubt filled with references and in-jokes we do not quite understand. But the central idea travels well. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: 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. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: This is a very funny picture, though it's never burlesqued and is, in fact, occasionally poignant. Read more

Eddie Cockrell, Variety: Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Overlong and a bit tiresome but it's actually about something -- not so much ostalgie as the conditions that create it. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Becker handles the film's comedy with fluency ... but he's even better when it comes to the story's more wistful dramatic elements. Read more