Goodbye Lenin

Beverly and I saw “Goodbye Lenin” yesterday at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. I’ve been waiting for some weeks to see this movie, ever since I heard a review on NPR. Well, the wait was worth it. The movie takes place in East Germany during the events before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and although the story concerns that political landscape, it’s ultimately a family comic drama about the lies we all tell to protect the ones we love.

A mother experiences a heart attack and suffers a coma that lasts eight months. When she recovers, the doctor tell her son and daughter that she still is weak. Any surprise could kill her. Since she was an ardently patriotic East German, the son decides they must hide the dramatic changes of the last 8 months, changes that are building towards the reunification of Germany.

He recreates the old East Germany in various and humorous ways in a loving attempt to keep the truth from her, but in turn discovers a significant truth that had been kept from him. It’s a story of our love for our ideals, whether personal or political ones, and the falsehoods told in order to protect them, falsehoods that will destroy those same ideals in the process. It’s a good story about a fascinating time that translates well to contemporary events in this country. 4.5 grapes.