2006, USA
Adventure, Crime, Film Noir, Mystery, Romance, War
Just because the soldiers have stopped shooting does not mean the war is over. 1945's Berlin is split in transition between four nations, and the locals want out of it. Director Steven Soderbergh reveals the chaos of a ruined city in this adaptation of Joseph Kanon's novel.
Soderbergh not only tells this postwar story but attempts to live in the time period. He has filmed it (under the monikers "Peter Andrews" for cinematographer and "Mary Ann Bernard" for editor) by the limited technical standards of that era, and his efforts are evident. There is no fancy camerawork, and even driving shots are filmed against a background screen. From the bold opening title cards, appropriately swelling music (by the talented but now ubiquitous Thomas Newman of Little Children) and low angle close-ups, this movie could be slipped into the Turner Classic Movie channel's lineup with little disruption.
Once the film has been introduced with smiles and apple pie talk, Soderbergh reminds the audience that this was in fact created long after production code censorship, and our eager beaver driver (Tobey Maguire at his unexpected duplicitous best) is heard cursing like a sailor and seen roughly having sex with his prostitute girlfriend. The corporal's been assigned to be at the service of a visiting war correspondent (Soderbergh buddy George Clooney), who against his better judgment returns to Berlin to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference. It is not the war-torn city that bothers him, but the woman he left behind -- the same woman in the corporal's bed, and the woman that is suddenly of great interest to the military.
As Maguire's Tully explains, "Money allows you to be who you really are" and an old confidant of Clooney's Jake asks him what his angle is when researching a murder, Jake realizes that no one in the city can be trusted and everyone is working towards their own greedy purposes. Old acquaintances have been so changed by the hellish war that he can no longer guess their motives. Even the girl he thought he knew (Cate Blanchett as a gravely-voiced fräulein) has dark secrets she is trying to bury.
The mess of this ravaged city controlled by too many cooks in the kitchen was previously used as a backdrop in such films as The Third Man and A Foreign Affair. The complications are ripe for stories of revenge and scorned lovers, and Soderbergh investigates shamelessly into the darkest corners. He is not shy about stealing images from Casablanca, and goes so far as to mimic the film's poster.
Yet Soderbergh holds his own in this intriguing film of war crimes and the justifications people use for their own survival. As others become merely stepping stones towards a free life, inner peace is lost to a cold emptiness. The struggles of war continue long after the proclamations have been signed, and those left in the rubble must climb their way out to a better existence.