Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives Of Others)

This is really a rather good film, based on a fascinating subject, including some truly awesome performances.
The STASI setting is simply fascinating, surely a mine for a future of wonderful drama. The atmosphere is conveyed sympathetically, with a few didactics of horror overdone slightly, perhaps, but with a general feeling for the complexity of a real organsation.
This film can be split into two elements; the narrative, which is fitfully succesful, and the performances/characterisation/themes, which are near magnificent.
The narrative is a good one, but not perhaps the best put together. Wiesler's change of heart perhaps comes too qucikly, we have a slightly odd ending, and in general the pacing is not consistent. There are still some well played bits, notably the climax of the 1984 section, where the narrative does heat up.
The performances, on the other hand, are without reproach. Kock, Gedeck, and good old Tulur are exemplary. And then there is Muhe, who gives one of the finest lead performances one could come across. With a wonderful reticence, physciality, subtedly, he in every moment conveys the full account of this fascinating man. Even in scenes that seem not quite in place he plays Wiesler with a grace, with a sadness, that is supreme. The mixture of the uprightness and the hunch of his walk, the way his open face seems to suggest both love and vaults....spellbinding.
The themes of voyeurism, and the goodness of a man, are well put together, and leave us with a deserved emotional climax (with Muhe investing this with so much). We come out thinking we have seen a very good film, all told.