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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 03/11/2007 : 20:40:13
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I hope we all agree that whatever else you thought about Dreamgirls, Eddie Murphy was very fine indeed, both in the range of his characterization and its honesty. And then he has to go and get involved - and I mean INVOLVED - in a piece of stinking dreck like Norbit! Involved because not only does he play 3 - count 'em 3 roles -he produced and co-wrote the turkey too! It's SO AWFUL from beginning to end, and only one of his characters - the eponymous one - works in any way shape or form. And what was Thandie Newton doing when she signed up? These are two talented people ... who clearly need a brain transplant!  STAY AWAY, unless you really are a masochist.
The Good German, otoh, is Soderbergh's directorial conceit. A stylish film which fails to escape its pretensions. This, too, has a star who's involved because the film was made by the production company owned by Soderbergh and Clooney. It's set immediately post-was and the conceit was to shoot it with only the techniques of the era; in that, it succeeds and reminds us how the introduction of colour in cinema actually set back cinematographic innovation. The film looks stunning. And so do Clooney and Blanchett, both of whom act their little socks off. They each have faces which segue into the era. Sadly, Toby Maguire doesn't. And his innate chirpiness just isn't suited to the hard-bitten brute he plays.
But what's really wrong with the film, is that in trying to be the love-child of Casablanca and The Big Sleep, it becomes The Big Blank Yawn ... because you just don't care about the people. It's interesting to follow their story, and it's interesting to watch how their machinations make comment on wider issues of political pragmatism and corrupt bending of rules to serve less altruistic ends. Part of the problem is that the narrative focus is deliberately split, so that you find out various plot points from different povs.
OK, in itself, there's nothing particularly wrong with that -- if it's resolved cleverly. Here, it's merely a device that not only doesn't add anything, it actually detracts from getting caught up viscerally in the story, as opposed to intellectually. It's that which I blame - and not the actors - for our not really feeling the intensity of passion that we're told existed between Clooney and Blanchett.
This could have been a wonderful film, but instead it's watchable.
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Oh, Eddie, how could you! + B&W Germans
