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Goodbye, Lenin!
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Wolfgang Becker
Hendrik Handloegten
Bernd Lichtenberg
Achim von Borries
Directed by: Wolfgang Becker
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 27, 2004
DVD: July 27, 2004
Running Time: 121 minutes, Color
Origin: German
Language(s): German (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: R for brief language and sexuality
Starring Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Maria Simon, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas, Alexander Beyer, Burghart Klaußner, and Michael Gwisdek
A human story of the reunification not only of an entire nation, but of a family living in East Berlin. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
I don't claim to have seen every entry from around the world, but it's hard to imagine five better than this deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
In a disarmingly entertaining fashion, this multiaward-winning German bittersweet comedy seems to encapsulate all the emotion and drama of that profound geopolitical event.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
One of the most enjoyable movies I've seen lately, but it has a biting knowledge of that which history gives and history takes away.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
This is a very funny picture, though it's never burlesqued and is, in fact, occasionally poignant.
Read Full Review >Premiere Peter Debruge
Reveals more about the German people through sentimental comedy than such overtly political films as "The Nasty Girl" or "The Marriage of Maria Braun."
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A funny and intermittently sharp German satire that musters gentle nostalgia for East German communism while mocking the not-so-distant past.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
One of those gratifyingly nostalgic works of art that accept the present day but remind us, as well, that the past wasn't necessarily worse.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Funny but not a comedy, serious but never overbearing, emotional in an engaging and bittersweet way, Good Bye, Lenin! is a wonderful film unto itself about a world unto itself.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Marvelously entertaining, and occasionally brilliant, political satire.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
A romantic comedy so smart and sweetly mature, it's liberating.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Wolfgang Becker's premise is absurdist and makes great sense as political satire.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
It is not a step-by-step chronicle of German reunification, but it gives a perspective of the time. It's a bonus that this comes as part of an engrossing and well told story.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a tasty but evasive treat, no matter what your taste in politics or movies.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A comedy, but a peculiar one. Peculiar, because it never quite addresses the self-deception which causes Christiane to support the communist regime in the first place.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
There's a strange, bittersweet melancholy in watching the protagonists of Good Bye, Lenin! being buffeted about by change, but refusing to let go of each other.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
With light-hearted wit, compassion for its characters and artful attention to detail, the film is winningly funny and humane.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Goodbye, Lenin! is often drab--the color is washed out, the lighting flat. Yet the movie is sweetly enjoyable as a sardonic elegy for a dream that went bust. [8 March 2004, p. 92]
Variety Eddie Cockrell
This triumph of historical verisimilitude in the service of solid storytelling requires no detailed knowledge of the period to be appreciated as the moving story of a son's unconditional love for his mother.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Surprisingly successful blend of goofy political farce and sober family drama.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Relies heavily on strong performances from Brühl and Sass to make the illusion believable.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Director Becker and his sharp screenwriter, Bernd Lichtenberg, come less to bury communism than to hurl darts at the Western commodity culture that floods East Berlin.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
There are many funny lines and situations, accompanied by strong performances all around. Sadly, Good Bye Lenin! falters at the end, when it loses its edge and lapses into sentimentality.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
It's mainly a hunt for ironies, usually playful but occasionally poignant, and the search is definitely successful enough to merit our attention -- although maybe not the two-hour running time.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Mark Jenkins
It's a sweet family dramedy whose political undertones don't flatter either capitalism or "democratic socialism."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
When the movie got serious again at the end I wasn't buying, though the whole endeavor is helped along by an appealing cast.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Overlong and a bit tiresome but it's actually about something.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Much too long. It starts to feel like a flabby, dramatic version of the first "Austin Powers" movie, another exercise in living anachronism as a storytelling device. By the time the picture's final note about German reunification is struck, "Lenin!" has raised a wall of indifference for the audience.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Will richly award locals with sly in-jokes and a wonderful comic performance by Bruhl. Non-Germans will certainly get the essence of the humor but may find the movie long and repetitive.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The film seems overlong and drawn out, with variations on the same joke occurring throughout. Although the performances are good, the nostalgia for the past seems quaint in the new "have it your way" Burger King world.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Combination of comedy and gravity is certainly common enough, but it requires a sure hand and perceptible intent. This screenplay has some neat touches, but it never makes up its mind.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Adam L. gave it a3:
Headache inducing. It's as if the filmmakers couldn't decide whether this should be a political drama, a period piece, or a comedy, and so tried to mash all three together in the most jarring fashion imaginable. It just doesn't work.
Didier R. gave it a10:
Awesome!! I loved this film...OST with Yann Tiersen.... GREAT.
Ad A. gave it a10:
It is 1 of the best movies i have seen for a really long time cool trama and script excellent cast!! just perfect.
Miles M. gave it a9:
Definately a must-see film. The humour is somewhat subtle and you must think about it after you watched it to realize the full extent of the comedy.
Ken K. gave it a 9:
Very well done and easy to watch.
Anna R. gave it a 9:
I thought this was a lovely little film, political and meaningful but accessible. I enjoyed myself immensely, found it very poignant and at times hilarious, plus educational. It is beautifully directed and acted, and thoughtful. There are some truly wonderful moments, like when the mother catches sight of a coca cola advert which is being displayed on the side of a building. Overall, there's plenty to enjoy and something for everyone, working as a family drama and a social satire.
Ludovico S. gave it a 0:
But the communist's era in east germany wasen't so nice. no many eastern (ossis) had nostalgia about that.
