Very gratifying in large chunks but there were plot points which I found absurd. Interestingly shot and edited and many very creative touches. I thought it worked best when the characters were being real people and worst when they were being american sitcom characters but I'm sure others would say precisely the opposite.

Absolutely fantastic!

Loved it! A very intelligent, subtle and humorous view of a son's love for his ailing mother. Very entertaining!

A delightful film well constructed if deliberately 'flat.' Built round a world-changing event, the movie focuses on the lives of ordinary people 'on the wrong side' are how they strive to live through change. Not especially laugh-out loud funny but with enough characterization and wit to keep the story rolling for most of the time. I would have enjoyed a little more examination of the before and after state of East Germany to point up the dilemmas and ambitions of the people, and while it deals with deception on a personal level there are bigger but unexplored angles on how a state can deceive its citizens.… Expand

Alex?s mother had a heat stroke on the hottest day in October. Coca-Cola stole its formula from the East German soda company, and is pending a great law suit. The westerners are fleeing to the east with their popular western cars, and socialism is soaring. Well, that?s what Alex told her. What really happened was she had seen him being beaten by the police in a democratic protest. She spontaneously has a heart attack and falls to the ground as Alex is wheeled away. She falls into a coma for eight months. In this time, the Berlin Wall has fallen and East Germany is being culturally swept by trends of the west. Alex?s mother being a devoted woman?s communist, you can see how this might cause excitement in her. What Alex has done is create a world for his communist-devoted mother to live in. How he pulls it off his miraculous and even a bit preposterous. What he makes everybody go through to satisfy his creation of this faux life is inconceivable and riotously entertaining. He and a friend at a cable network conjure up fake newscast to cover up the news that Alex doesn?t want his mother to see. This leads to the greatest section of the movies, when Alex?s mother awakes and decides to venture outside of the apartment while discovering much ?westernization? of Berlin. However, Alex and his friend are able to cover this up in an uncannily original way. However, all of Alex?s efforts raise a moral question: Should be lie to ones we love to save them. Personally, I think what Alex has done is great and necessary at first, but continuing it on for months is dangerous and unachievable. You can start anything like this and keep an element of belief for a while, but to hope it will work forever is just not thinking. With that question in mind, the film leads to a great emotional payoff. It?s ambiguous, but still heartfelt. … Expand

What's wrong with a little clever nostalgia? This story explores the very touching and human side of a monumental point in history through a loveable German family.

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.

It is 1 of the best movies i have seen for a really long time cool trama and script excellent cast!! just perfect.

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.

This is an immensely complex tale of truth and perspective set in East Berlin after the fall of the wall. Some people will always call this a comedy, but that is because they failed to scrape off the cream and discover the rich undergrowth of complexity in this extremely thought provoking film.

But the communist's era in east germany wasen't so nice. no many eastern (ossis) had nostalgia about that.

A political satire that nips both sides and has a big heart, both for the personal impact of political history and for the complexity of all changes and how nothing is all bad or all good. Sure it gets a little rushed and implausible at times, but that's totally minor compared to everything that's right with this movie.

This movie is excellent up until the 90-minute mark, whereupon it becomes tiresome and overly sentimental. The acting is uniformly good and the direction uncluttered, straightfoward, and really funny. But then Alex meets up with his father, has his best friend make fake newscasts for his mom, and the film goes downhill. If this movie had ended about a third of the way through, it probably would've been one of my favorite movies of this year, but it then wears out its welcome.… Expand

GOOD BYE LENIN! is a comedy of a bittersweet kind. It has revealed the complexity of life amid the weightlessness of freedom, enticement of westernization, and the burden of abrupt change. Set against the historic collapse of the Berlin Wall, the movie pleasantly integrates comedy of situation, irony of fate, and the quarreling alliance between reality and the heart's decree, hence picturing a fundamental tale of being. Famed German caliber of production, affecting cinematography, soundtrack, and leading/supporting performances all chip in to the reaching of tender moments of connection between wordless language and feeling, the visual and sensory, love and life. Indeed, one of the most remarkable contributions in the European artistic cinema, a beautiful and heartwarming movie?… Expand

This film won best European film and deserves the award. It is a comedy set after the cold war collaspe of communism in East Germany which has reunited with West Germany. A woman has amnesia during this time and the kids don't want their mother who has a weak heart to suffer from post dramtic stress if she discovers the truth. They try to preend that life is still the same in East Germany under communism. Very hilarious and funny the script was excellent.… Expand

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.… Expand