The Lives of Others (2006)
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The Lives of Others Movie Review
The Lives of Others is a 2006 German historical drama film directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Ulrich Mühe. It’s an overrated film.
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“Socialism has to start somewhere“
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In 1983 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler, doubting that a famous playwright is loyal to the Communist Party, receives approval to spy on the man and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, then faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria and orders Wiesler to get the playwright out of the way.
Obviously, the film deals with a very important, tumultuous period in German history. It’s essential for being the first ever serious film about this period and these issues, and I certainly respect it for that. But I do not love it regardless.
The film is solid, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not as great to me as most say it is. I find some scenes here very emotional and powerful, even tragic. Those are the highlights of the film as it is very moving in tone. I also really liked some of the dialogue, and the performances are great across the board.
Easily the standout is Ulrich Mühe who is simply superb in the main role. His performance is complex and powerful, and he’s the biggest reason to see the movie in my opinion. But everyone else also did a good job, and the characters are mostly quite memorable and well developed. The film is tremendously well acted, there is no denying that.
Then what is my problem with The Lives of Others? Well, mainly that it’s one hell of a slugfest. I was bored to death watching this film because the pacing is so sluggish, the runtime is overlong and the entire film is subdued to a fault.
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It’s subtle and extremely realistic, but that led to a lack of excitement or danger. I personally would have preferred more thriller elements as they were thoroughly missing from the picture. The film is well shot and well directed, but ‘Never Look Away’ is simply a much better movie from this particular director. This one thus had no business beating ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ at the Oscars.
Although The Lives of Others is tremendously well acted across the board, very well made, important in its subject matter and frequently quite emotional, the film is a giant snoozefest nevertheless. It’s subdued to a fault, it is way too long and it honestly bored me quite a lot. Thus, I find it to be very overrated with the director’s next film being so much better. This winning an Oscar over ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is one of the biggest injustices that have ever occurred at the Academy.
