Commie chameleon
Good Bye, Lenin! builds dramedy from the fall of the Berlin Wall.

By Dennis Harvey

THEORETICAL COMMUNISM TRUMPS its real-world versions, which tend to make theoretical democracy look very good. But is applied democracy really better, quality of life-wise and all, than applied Communism? The answer to that seemed so obviously affirmative for so long that even now hardly anyone – excepting, of course, some people who've actually undergone the transition – will admit "Maybe not" is a legitimate response too.

In the 15 years since the iron curtain collapsed, we've seen civil war and ethnic slaughter in the Balkans and a heavy boot coming down on Chechnya. The "new Russia" appears characterized by gangsters, extremists, deep political corruption, a very rich few (who've largely moved abroad) versus many poverty-stricken millions who'd hitherto been able to count on modest cradle-to-grave government support in exchange for life's labor. The future looks brighter in Eastern Europe, but still, many former "reds" in all territories wish the clock would turn back. Of course it's not Stalin or the Stasi they're nostalgic for but something one might call social security – whose U.S. namesake we too will soon be mourning, looks like.

With a whole pre-extant robust capitalist democracy to be (re-) absorbed into, East Germany has, in comparative terms, had the easiest perestroika ride of them all. Thus the new German film Good Bye, Lenin! can afford to cast its fictive look back in terms that are whimsically comic and warm, its politics limited to light satire.

A huge hit at home and throughout Europe, Wolfgang Becker's movie is inherently local in themes even as its high-concept nature, neatly wrapped storytelling, and surface gloss hail the continent's trend toward more marketably universal (i.e., Hollywood) filmmaking. It's a dramedy cocktail mixed with such crowd-pleasing astuteness you might almost feel guilty – there's nothing very art house going on here past the subtitles. Resistance is futile, however: Good Bye, Lenin! is easily the most satisfying release of the year so far.

A waggish introduction narrated by Alex Kerner (Daniel Bruehl) fast-forwards us through his first 20-odd years of life in the DDR, a very ordinary start distinguished only by hero worship of Sigmund Jahn, the first East German cosmonaut launched into space (in 1978, aboard a Soviet mission). Happy-family normalcy takes a hit when, on that very same day, his dad abandons spouse and kids by defecting to the West.

His mom, Christiane (Katrin Sass), bears up, then suffers a wee nervous breakdown, then emerges from it a fiercely dedicated apparatchik. She sings the joys of socialism at home and on every committee she can possibly join or chair, propagandistic idealism filling the marital void.

Life goes on, changing very little – until, suddenly, it changes a lot. En route to yet another Party function, Christiane witnesses the impossible: hordes openly defying the state, marching in East Berlin streets for the right to "take walks without a wall getting in the way," as Alex puts it. It's Oct. 7, 1989, the soon-to-be-extinct nation's 40th anniversary. Shocked into cardiac arrest, loyalist mom collapses on the pavement. When she wakes from a coma months later, history's course has shifted drastically. But since the doctor urges a weak heart be protected from any excitement, Alex determines to hide this news at any cost.

Thus the Kerner flat becomes a tenuously sealed bubble of pre-reunification life. The illusion takes considerable effort to achieve – after all, life just outside has gone crazy for capitalism in five seconds flat – but can be maintained so long as Christiane remains bedridden. No longer state-employed, Alex hides his new job as a satellite dish installer; sister Ariane (Maria Simon) has to pretend her new boyfriend turned husband is anything but the West Berlin slackster she now works alongside at a multinational fast-food chain outlet. In the film's best running gag, Alex's aspiring-filmmaker coworker, Denis (Florian Lukas), even fabricates entire fake newscasts to be "broadcast" via secret VCR, keeping Christiane in the collectivist dark.

But reality keeps finding new cracks to leak through. Good Bye, Lenin!'s strength lies in its transcending a gimmicky premise to make the central charade's construction and tear-down work on several levels: as Alex's coming-of-age trial, as "reunification" of the German family (including that long-lost father), as statement of filial devotion, as corporate-culture critique (note the national flag torn down for a Coca-Cola banner), and so forth. The ingenious script might be accused of emotional string-pulling; that is, if its characters didn't seem so full-bodied or the cumulative effect weren't so unexpectedly poignant.

Those susceptible to last-act blubber when earned (as opposed to forced, à la Mona Lisa Smile) should get their Kleenex supply in order. I laughed, I cried, I mopped up. It's the feel-good socialist nostalgia seriocomedy of the year.

'Good Bye, Lenin!' opens Fri/12 at Bay Area theaters. See Movie Clock, in Film listings, for show times.