Goodbye Lenin!

I watched Goodbye Lenin! today. It is a great film about one boys devotion to his mother. His mother was a fervent supporter of the Socialists, and falls into a coma in 1989. For the few months that she is in the coma, her world disappears...the wall falls and Coca-Cola comes to town. When she regains consciousness, the doctor warns the son that any shock might kill his mother, so he sets out to create a different world, the world as it was months ago.

Hilarity ensues as he tries to find old German pickles and other staples now that the grocery stores are overrun with the more desirable Western goods. He enlists a friend to create videotapes of news broadcasts to fool his mother into thinking life has continued on as normal.

And while this sort of storyline lends itself to comical situations, the filmmaker, Wolfgang Becker, has shown great restraint in portraying the reasoning behind all of these machinations.

The son does feel guilty as each small lie begets a larger lie, but his intentions were always good.

Very good film...I loaned this film to my assistant manager, and not only did he like it, he said his whole family enjoyed it, including his kids.