Good Bye, Lenin! | Review

Light dramedy focuses less on politics and more on heart-warming tale.

When perestroika defeated communism, when nationalism was replaced by good old consumerism and when Coca-Cola was introduced as a commodity while the Berlin wall was reduced to becoming a collector’s item nobody seem to mind, in fact, change was embraced without the blinking of an eye. While long line ups and the stale taste of grey-colored food became a distant memory, there was still a massive tooth-ache-like migraine which resulted from the growth pains for those who had lived by the symbol of a united nation under one mentality. Wolfgang Becker’s heart-warming drama with a sense of humor is not only about a nation having to grow up fast, but about a son having to make very difficult, adult decisions.

Becker’s story focuses on the idea of protecting the one’s that we love from the truth, which can sometimes hurt. Although, Good bye, Lenin! doesn’t exactly address any of the difficult issues that came about with a new united Germany, this important discussion is unfortunately downplayed by an abundance of set décor detail and historical features such as the changing of currency or the popularity of bras ads. What this film comes down to is this “out-with-the-old” trickling down of events which are disguised by one loving son who cares not in giving his mother more grief once she awakes from her untimely coma. In the protagonist of Alex played by Daniel Bruhl, we have everything that has to do with the acne–glimpses of the confused teenager, the first puppy love bit, the abandoned son by a defected father.

Though there is a certain amount of fluffiness, and the narration takes too much unnecessary place, the concept of the story is a rather interesting one and it is surrounded by some genuine good humor and sincere moments of young adult anger at the system and at the rest of the world. The humor serves this film well, from the made-up montage tapes which help the mother catch-up with the times down to the old pickle jars which cover how it must have felt like to veer in a sometimes confusing 180 direction. The dramatic heartfelt “unification” between father and son is perhaps a little much, but it matches the the result of the two countries and when compared to other films, this space-ship memory of finding one’s father is not a let down to the rest of the feature. Besides the muck-up of having a kid where a The Matrix t-shirt, the abidance of staple of society items from the East simply adds flavor to the narrative.

Good bye, Lenin! does the job, and Becker effortlessly rounds up every item in his possession for a film which will make a lot of people happy, especially from the population of beer drinkers and sauerkraut eaters who might have some animosity about the past.

Rating 3 stars