Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

On the face of it, Good Bye Lenin!'s premise -- a young adult son just about managing to keep the collapse of the East German regime (and the Berlin Wall) secret from his ailing mother -- is preposterous. In lesser hands, it would be prone to cheap, unfunny laughs and, worse, insensitivity to the subtleties of massive political and cultural change. Remarkably, the film totally avoids those pitfalls to create a moving work that deftly balances not just comedy and drama, but also the political and the personal. Although the scenario strains credibility, it's done with enough finesse to make it easy for viewers to suspend disbelief, much as the dying mother does despite mounting evidence that not all is what it seems. Much of the amusement comes from Daniel Brühl's increasingly desperate attempts to maintain a pre-Wall facade, which finds him stooping to rooting through the garbage for old pickle jars and filming fake news broadcasts in order to keep up appearances. Along the way are pretty witty jabs at both socialism and capitalism, which finds the family, and even some national heroes and school children, scampering for new jobs and side scams in the onrush of free enterprise. Yet some ways into this satire, Good Bye Lenin! becomes something more than a mere farce. It's also an examination of how the Cold War tore apart this family in particular, with long-buried secrets finally coming to light in a manner that mirrors how long-repressed desires for social freedom were finally getting expressed in 1990 East Germany, with similar attendant pains and ambiguity. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Movie Guide