Red_Identity I really didn't know what to expect from this. I sought it out before I am a huge fan of Daniel Bruhl and find him endlessly charming and watchable in everything I've seen him in (which started with Rush). He did not disappoint here. It's a quiet, but layered performance. I expected the film to be a comedy but instead it's a very poignant drama, with some humor. Overall, the performances definitely make this gem worth it.

William Musser Having just watched this movie again after a few years, I have confirmed how much I liked it the first time, and discovered underlying sub plots. I have not read every review but have not seen this in the ones I have read. That is that deception, from the state to the people, between the people, (even the ones you love) and in the media is flourishing. The mother withheld letters sent from the absentee father to his children. The children withheld that fact that the country she loved had failed. The state withheld about everything. And the mother's television, her only connection to the outside world, broadcast news concocted by her son. She does not discover the truth until she gets out of bed, ventures into the world, makes her own investigation, and comes to her own conclusions. It reminds me of a passage in "The Lord of the Rings" that goes something like this; "Evil has not changed since yesteryear and it is not one thing for man and another thing for elves and dwarfs. But it is up to us to discern it in the Golden Wood or in our own homes." Considering the amount of misinformation we are fed from the network owners, government, industry, it is an important lesson. And with the advent of Photoshop, the internet, truth has become much more elusive. We cannot believe what we see, hear or read. This leaves us our sense of smell as the only sense capable of determining the smell of untruth.

David Min The film is one of my favourites of all time, and is the best film I've seen that best conveyed why people, despite the repression of USSR and its economic failures, still look back fondly on the Soviet republic and remain committed to the ideals of socialism.The main character, played by Daniel Bruhl, captures quite well the inner struggles of what I would imagine the then GDR citizen. On the one hand, fed up with a system that no longer works and skeptical of the party leadership, and on the other, resiliently holding the hope that the ideals of socialism materialise. Through his journey with his family, I seem to understand how the raft of changes affected the citizens of the GDR. At the end, when that familiar tune takes over, and Arianne show some surprising emotions, it's hard to resist a sense of sorrow that way of life, that system of beliefs, could very much be a relic of history.Overall, a well-executed film worth watching, with characters that you could empathise with.

blanche-2 "Good Bye, Lenin!" is a 2003 comedy starring Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, and Maria Simon, directed by Wolfgang Becker, who co-wrote the script.Bruhl, who has since done films such as Inglorious Bastards and The Fifth Estate, plays a young man, Alex Kerner, in an East Berlin family consisting of his mother (Sass), his sister (Simon), and later her husband and child. His father went to West Berlin on business and found love with another woman, and never returned, according to their mother.Alex's mother becomes catatonic after her husband leaves and is committed to a mental institution. She comes home some time later, back to her old self. She becomes a social activist and does work with children, including directing a choir. She even receives a special government award.During a government protest, in which Alex is arrested, his mother, trying to get somewhere, has a heart attack. She goes into a coma. Alex sees on television that Honecker, one of his mother's idols, has resigned. Then the wall comes down. His mother is comatose through it.Alex feels that his mother is too fragile to receive any of this dramatic news, so once she wakes up, he keeps up the illusion that it is still the same old East Germany. He has his aspiring filmmaker friend (Florian Lukas), who now sells satellite systems door to door, produce fake newscasts, which he then puts into a VCR and shows as the current news. Since the supermarkets now contain new food, he has to dig old pickle bottles out of the garbage, disinfect them, put in pickles, and relabel the bottles so she won't know they're no longer available. It's a lot of work, but the doctors aren't sure that his mother will survive, even though she is awake. In the meantime, Alex falls in love with a nurse at the hospital, Lara (Chulpan Khamatova).Really interesting, sometimes dramatic, sometimes poignant, sometimes funny film about all the changes that went on in East Berlin after the wall fell, and the westernization. At one point, when neighbors tell Alex's mother that they are from Wuppertal (in the west), Alex explains that the west is a mess and that many people are emigrating to the east.All the acting is very good, especially from Katrin Sass, who gives a wonderful performance as Alex's mother. Daniel Bruhl as Alex is very earnest as the caring son.All in all, a warm, original story and quite fascinating.