--- title: "The Good German: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-good-german/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-good-german" critics_score: 47 critics_reviews: 16 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Good German (2006): what the critics said Critics' score 47 from 16 reviews: 4 positive, 3 mixed, 9 negative. Most critics agree on one thing: Soderbergh has rebuilt the look of a 1940s studio thriller with real care. The black-and-white photography, the backlot Berlin and the period lighting are praised almost everywhere, even in the harshest notices, and Cate Blanchett is the performance most often singled out, with several critics describing her as a visitor from an earlier era. The few who like the film treat it as a bold experiment and take its coldness as part of the point. That coldness is where the reviews split, and the split is wide. The majority find the film lifeless: a muddled script, a passive hero, no romance and no warmth, technique with nothing underneath it. Several object to how closely it leans on Casablanca. The New Yorker goes further, arguing that the film-buff approach glosses over the real horrors of 1945 Berlin, and The Guardian calls the whole enterprise cynical. A handful of positive notices keep the score from falling lower. ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating B+. 14 December 2006. The critic praises the rigorous technical recreation of postwar Hollywood cinema and its knowing sophistication, while noting the film's clinical detachment leaves it chilly at heart yet still rewarding in its exploration of moral ambiguity. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-good-german-1798202266) ## Little White Lies — Matt Bochenski Rating 3/4/3. 8 March 2007. Soderbergh’s monochrome mystery has a winning, slightly oddball charm with Blanchett brilliant as an apparition from an earlier era. Clumsy plotting and passive protagonist are minor drawbacks in an otherwise fine vintage. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-good-german) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 2007. Soderbergh's noir throwback impresses with its old-school style and contemporary resonance, bringing desperation and fatalism of the 1940s into the present through a hard-boiled story and standout performances, especially Blanchett's. It succeeds as a bold, invigorating experiment from a daring director. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-good-german-review/) ## Time Out — Geoff Andrew Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 6 March 2007. Soderbergh's canny audacity produces a strong, mostly successful foray into post-war Berlin's wreckage with terrific black-and-white visuals. The bleak moral tale lacks sympathetic characters and dramatic engagement in places. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-good-german-1) ## Los Angeles Times — Carina Chocano Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 15 December 2006. Soderbergh crafts a stylish noir throwback that captures period nuance and bleak worldview through vintage techniques, though the characters feel layered to the point of lacking believable emotional bonds. The critic singles out the moral confusion at the story's core as both intriguing and ultimately mired in style. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-dec-15-et-german15-story.html) ## IndieWire — Michael Koresky Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2006. The critic examines the film's stylistic ambitions and clashes between modern and classic approaches in Soderbergh's homage to old Hollywood thrillers. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-style-wars-steven-soderberghs-the-good-german-75553/) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). Soderbergh's retro noir homage to 1940s classics like Casablanca pushes incompatible styles to breaking point and results in an incoherent script lacking dramatic logic. It remains interesting to watch with occasional beauty and inventive sequences. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49360) ## The Times — James Christopher Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 8 March 2007. The first reel impresses as vintage film noir with authentic visuals and Blanchett's Dietrich-like performance, but the story becomes a poor Casablanca with cold chemistry, sapping Cold War cynicism, and a failure to deliver romance or warmth despite the stylistic ambition. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/why-clooneys-bogey-is-bogart-pbhqdxndpfj) ## Empire — Ian Freer Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 23 February 2007. Soderbergh's ambitious pastiche of 1940s noir succeeds in its technical recreation of the era's style but results in a lifeless and remote film that lacks character nuance and compelling storytelling. The cast fails to generate star wattage in what becomes an unengaging experiment. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/good-german-review/) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. Soderbergh's attempt to recreate a 1940s studio thriller in style and substance falls flat, resulting in a stylish but emotionally null exercise rather than a compelling drama. The cast is muted and the modern additions fail to bring the material to life. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-forties-drained-of-drama-7393434.html) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 3 December 2006. Soderbergh's bold homage to wartime noir classics fails to generate suspense or romance despite technical audacity in black-and-white backlot recreation. It is ultimately dreary and an expensive curio. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/the-good-german/4029809.article) ## Slant Magazine — Nick Schager Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 29 November 2006. The critic finds the film's meticulous recreation of 1940s Hollywood style technically impressive but ultimately hollow and parodic, with an airless, inconsequential narrative that induces indifference rather than engagement. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-good-german/) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 15 December 2006. Soderbergh's genre pastiche fails to recapture classical Hollywood energy or pleasure, resulting in a disengaged and tonally off-key film. The critic singles out the feel-bad denouement for transforming the story's central figure into an offensive historical cliché. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/movies/15germ.html) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 11 December 2006. The film is clever and picturesque but insubstantial, prioritizing stylistic homage over engagement with its 1945 Berlin setting and real historical horrors. The critic singles out the excessive movie-buff approach that glosses over atrocity by treating it as cinematic pastiche. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/12/18/fighting-men) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 20/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 2007. The critic finds the film a monumentally misjudged and cynical pastiche of 1940s thrillers like Casablanca, with strong technical recreation but no heart, passion or memorable characters. The script is muddled and boring, the performances detached, and modern nastiness clashes with the homage. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/mar/09/thriller1) ## Eye for Film — The Exile Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 4 March 2007. The critic views the film as an artificial, gloomy stylistic exercise that fails as drama, with Soderbergh more interested in technical replication than storytelling, resulting in a picture with no real substance underneath the window dressing. The one thing singled out is the effective but ultimately distancing visual recreation of postwar Berlin through period techniques and high-contrast lighting. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-good-german-film-review-by-the-exile) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-good-german.md