Beware, rambling comments with story *SPOILERS* follow. Click here for the no-spoiler GO SEE IT posting. =)
More than one scene and moment moved me to watery eyes. Strong stuff. In particular, seeing Wiesler's fate, that of a mailman in the new Berlin, was tear jerking.
The actor is excellent as the inscrutable true believer, at certain times reminding me of Kevin Spacey and at others recalling Anthony Hopkins, not only in appearance, but also in tight, controlled, manner. Perfect for this character. And by true believer, I mean in the ideals of socialism, the theory, how it ought to be. At the start of the story he is fully dedicated to his country and his work. As the movie unfolds however, he has the opportunity to see (as do you) how the corruption in the system in practice in the GDR is a betrayal of his belief. Small but significant things, like the scene in the cafeteria, smartly illustrate the point. In the cafe, when his keen-on-advancement boss suggests they sit and make nice with the "bigwigs," Weisler instead insists on taking seats at a table with the rank and file, explaining that "socialism must begin somewhere."
Pretty frickin wonderful, that.
In disagrees with me on this, but I don't think that Christa Maria recognized Wiesler in the interrogation room. Maybe that's a testament to the character's acting talent... and I do reason that given the character's reputation, I shouldn't be able to tell, but stepping out of the film, if she *does* recognize him, there should be a sign, a nod and a wink, just for the audience, don't you think?
Of course, there's an argument for it not really mattering. Even if she does recognize him from their random intersection at the corner bar, playing guardian angel to herself and her fellow, in the setting of the interrogation room, the revelation doesn't have to be anything more than ironic (although I'd want it to be significant).
If you've seen the film, please drop a comment and let me know what you think as to whether Christa recognizes Wiesler on their second encounter. Given how everything plays out, I just don't buy it. And it made me a little bit sad.
Although, it does shore up this notion that I have of Wiesler being very much a Rosencrantz and Gildenstern type of character in the drama of the lives of playwright Dreyman and his subversive artist circle in East Berlin. If you subtract Wiesler from the story, you get a tale of a writer on the fence who, once his old friend and mentor decides to kill himself rather than live as a ghost of an artist, decides to speak out for the oppressed and risk his life to publish a story in the West. Wiesler never directly interacts with the major players. Even when he meets Christa, it's only as a rather intense fan of her work. A deus ex machina that tips her internal scale in favor of love over comfort.
Not a bad story, but not nearly as interesting and layered and powerful as the one I saw on screen tonight. Really good crack.
I was surprised at the depth of the story. The trailer led me to believe that Weisler's motives for breaking his "prime directive" regarding surveillance of suspected state enemies were far more sordid and scandalous. That lust or jealousy or even some self-righteous moral code might be what drives him to directly intervene in the lives/cases of his artsy subversive subjects. Even that, the "direct intervention" pushed by the trailer is cheaper than what actually occurs in the course of the story. It's kooky, but in the end, I'm glad that the trailer was almost misleading, pushing a simpler, more mainstream, kind of story than the actual layered and thoughtful plot, because it made the experience of the film that much more satisfying. An (inadvertant?) undersell.
I wonder if the bias in the trailer has helped or hurt attendance. I like a trailer that leaves a lot of surprises and layers to the experience of the actual film. But this trailer almost pitches the film as a cheap thrill, which it most certainly is not.
As the movie played, my mind conjured up a couple of elements for a "happy ending" option. Weisler would remove the typewriter from its hiding spot, but leave in its place the pages of the Dreyman's bogus 40th anniversary celebration play about Lenin. This play would have been written by Weisler himself, of course, as Dreyman was actually writing the article for Der Spiegel. This would allow Christa-Maria to give truthful testimony (altho still be an informant) regarding Georg's secret activities, provide physical evidence that backs up Weisler's b.s. surveillance reports, and also reveal true-believer Weisler to be a gifted amateur writer. Heh.
Oh, as to the identity of the author of the suicide article. It could be pinned on Dreyman's director-mentor, the man whose suicide inspired Dreyman's writing in the first place. The typewriter would be smuggled into his home and hidden there. Then the great man, alas, deceased, could be blamed/credited for the seditious publication and the living could go on.
I wonder if story development ever went down those fictional paths. It's a very much more "Hollywood" ending, of course. Perhaps I'll fold that all into a story or screenplay in the future...
Keep on keepin on~
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