Goodbye Lenin!
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: February 27, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
I don't claim to have seen every entry from around the world, but it's hard to imagine five better than this deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
In a disarmingly entertaining fashion, this multiaward-winning German bittersweet comedy seems to encapsulate all the emotion and drama of that profound geopolitical event. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
This is a very funny picture, though it's never burlesqued and is, in fact, occasionally poignant. Read full review
88
PremierePeter Debruge
Reveals more about the German people through sentimental comedy than such overtly political films as "The Nasty Girl" or "The Marriage of Maria Braun." Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
One of the most enjoyable movies I've seen lately, but it has a biting knowledge of that which history gives and history takes away. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A funny and intermittently sharp German satire that musters gentle nostalgia for East German communism while mocking the not-so-distant past. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
One of those gratifyingly nostalgic works of art that accept the present day but remind us, as well, that the past wasn't necessarily worse. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
A romantic comedy so smart and sweetly mature, it's liberating. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Funny but not a comedy, serious but never overbearing, emotional in an engaging and bittersweet way, Good Bye, Lenin! is a wonderful film unto itself about a world unto itself. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Marvelously entertaining, and occasionally brilliant, political satire. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Wolfgang Becker's premise is absurdist and makes great sense as political satire. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It is not a step-by-step chronicle of German reunification, but it gives a perspective of the time. It's a bonus that this comes as part of an engrossing and well told story. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Bittersweet and funny. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's a tasty but evasive treat, no matter what your taste in politics or movies. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A comedy, but a peculiar one. Peculiar, because it never quite addresses the self-deception which causes Christiane to support the communist regime in the first place. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
There's a strange, bittersweet melancholy in watching the protagonists of Good Bye, Lenin! being buffeted about by change, but refusing to let go of each other. Read full review
70
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Relies heavily on strong performances from Brühl and Sass to make the illusion believable. Read full review
70
VarietyEddie Cockrell
This triumph of historical verisimilitude in the service of solid storytelling requires no detailed knowledge of the period to be appreciated as the moving story of a son's unconditional love for his mother. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Surprisingly successful blend of goofy political farce and sober family drama. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Director Becker and his sharp screenwriter, Bernd Lichtenberg, come less to bury communism than to hurl darts at the Western commodity culture that floods East Berlin. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Goodbye, Lenin! is often drab--the color is washed out, the lighting flat. Yet the movie is sweetly enjoyable as a sardonic elegy for a dream that went bust. [8 March 2004, p. 92]
70
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
With light-hearted wit, compassion for its characters and artful attention to detail, the film is winningly funny and humane. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Becker handles the film's comedy with fluency. Read full review
63
New York PostV.A. Musetto
There are many funny lines and situations, accompanied by strong performances all around. Sadly, Good Bye Lenin! falters at the end, when it loses its edge and lapses into sentimentality. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
It's mainly a hunt for ironies, usually playful but occasionally poignant, and the search is definitely successful enough to merit our attention -- although maybe not the two-hour running time. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Overlong and a bit tiresome but it's actually about something. Read full review
60
Washington PostMark Jenkins
It's a sweet family dramedy whose political undertones don't flatter either capitalism or "democratic socialism." Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
When the movie got serious again at the end I wasn't buying, though the whole endeavor is helped along by an appealing cast. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Will richly award locals with sly in-jokes and a wonderful comic performance by Bruhl. Non-Germans will certainly get the essence of the humor but may find the movie long and repetitive. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Much too long. It starts to feel like a flabby, dramatic version of the first "Austin Powers" movie, another exercise in living anachronism as a storytelling device. By the time the picture's final note about German reunification is struck, "Lenin!" has raised a wall of indifference for the audience. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Combination of comedy and gravity is certainly common enough, but it requires a sure hand and perceptible intent. This screenplay has some neat touches, but it never makes up its mind. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The film seems overlong and drawn out, with variations on the same joke occurring throughout. Although the performances are good, the nostalgia for the past seems quaint in the new "have it your way" Burger King world. Read full review
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