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The Counterfeiters
User Score
8.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19

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  1. ChadS.
    Mar 29, 2008
    8
    A "mercy f***"; it's the first bit of English that an Auschwitz survivor named Meyer Maslow learned when he first immigrated to the states, in novelist Francine Prose's "A Changed Man". Maslow, the leader of an Amnesty International-type organization, used the holocaust for sex with college coeds when he taught at an American university. Concentration camps and post-war sex collude in "Die Falscher"(American title: "The Counterfeiters"), too, as a hooker waives her services rendered charge after she sees the identifying markings on Salomon Sorowitsch's arms that denote the Russian's first-hand experience with crematoriums and other Nazi iconography. Maslow, for all we know(Prose keeps her novel in the present), could've been a Nazi collaborator like Sorowitsch(Karl Markovics), who insists that the prostitute take the money, because the counterfeiter knows he doesn't deserve a mercy f***. Like "Schindler's List", a war profiteer(August Diehl as Adolf Burger) incidentally saves the lives of a few Jews by putting them to work, but unlike the Steven Spielberg film, there are no clear-cut heroes to put a face on Operation Bernhard. Salomon is like the marathon runner who walks throughout the race, but scores the free t-shirt, nevertheless. Salomon was "there", without really being there, which makes "Die Falscher" unique from other movies about the forced labor camps. This time around, the morally compromised only goes through the motions of expelling his bumpy past. Listen closely to what Salomon tells the whore after his self-abnegating exorcism.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. Fantasy
    Mar 1, 2008
    10
    Excellent! Most worthy of the praise and honors it ireceived.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. RolandB.
    May 12, 2008
    5
    note to entertainment weekly: doesn't take sides....? guessed we watched a different movie. personally i thought this was your brand name holocaust movie with all the tricks we are used to implemented to manipulate us and make us sad without offering anything innovative or new to say about the already well explored subject.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. JayH.
    Aug 2, 2008
    8
    Amazing story, very well directed with an excellent cast. Fine attention to period detail. Moving as well as disturbing. The writing is first rate. Very fascinating, always interesting.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. SusanM.
    Apr 13, 2008
    10
    This movie was incredibly well-done. It's clearly better when Europeans make WWII films - they do it much better than Hollywood.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. MarcK.
    Apr 14, 2008
    6
    Nothing new. Doesn't break any new ground. Rather predictable. If you've seen "Schindler's List" or "The Pianist," you've seen this one.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. MikeD.
    May 24, 2008
    10
    Riveting from start to finish. I thought other foreign-film Oscar nominees were worthy of winning and was surprised to see this one win, but that was before I had seen it. It deserves the Oscar, and your $10 to see it.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. JayW.
    Feb 23, 2008
    10
    A work of art with a superb ensemble cast, economically possible only in foreign cinema.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  9. DennisB.
    Feb 23, 2008
    8
    Well-written, with realistic, nuanced performances helped by a story whose shadings of right and wrong hold your interest from beginning to end. Not as emotionally powerful as Schindler's List, but worth seeing just the same. Makes you wonder how you would have behaved in the same situation.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. ERG1008
    Sep 17, 2010
    8
    Austrian film about Saloman Sorowitsch, a Jewish counterfeiter who was spared the concentration camps in WWII to run a fake currency production for the Nazis. Moving, disturbing & great performances from Karl Markovics in the lead & Martin Brambach who gives Ralph Fiennes's Amon Goeth a run for his money as the thoroughly unpleasant Holst. Definitely worth a watch.
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Eddie Cockrell
    70
    The moral quandary of Nazi complicity is revisited in taut drama The Counterfeiters, which tells the true story of a disparate group of imprisoned artists, financiers and swindlers secretly assembled in a concentration camp to forge millions of pound and dollar notes to support the German war effort.
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  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    From an historical perspective, the story is interesting because it shows a different side of the war than what we're used to observing in motion pictures.
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  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    At its best--and queasiest--The Counterfeiters asks disturbing questions more commonly found in the survivor literature of Primo Levi or Bruno Bettelheim than at the movies.
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