Good (2008)

‘Good’, a film based on the stage play by C. P. Taylor and a number of the performers, from the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), appear in both. However, the (mostly) fine performances from them could not save this movie. What succeeds on stage does not necessarily succeed in another medium, which is the case with ‘Good’. It says nothing new for those who have a smidgin of knowledge about the NAZI atrocities during WWII; it rambles and fails to engage. Vitto Mortensen is out of his depth as the professor and only connects with his character occasionally. Jason Isaacs, thankfully, is very good but hampered by dull directing and writing.

A wonderful film about how small choices and compromises we make can take us somewhere we never thought we'd be and become someone we swore we'd never become. People have complained that they all had English accents. The whole point of this was to make you realise that this wasn't just about the German people. This could happen to anyone.

Interesting enough, but just felt, given the subject matter, that it didn't grip me the way it should have. I am not sure if it was the perfomances that were a little flat, or that the screenplay didn't do it. I thought the affair with the student was a major distraction from the main narrative (and could have been placed much further in the background), and I felt the attempt at a punchy ending just didn't hold the pathos I think it was aiming for.

Interesting film, but I don't think you would find an SS officer in Nazi Germany with a conscience. Still a nice simplified story of how good men become monsters.

This movie, which I understand was a passion for Viggo Mortensen, feels very much like a stage play. As other reviewers have mentioned, it shows how a bit of power and adoration can make normally good people make terrible choices. I hated the English accents too - made no sense to me. It was okay, but didn't drag me in.

Rather uninteresting. The English accents were annoying and out of place.

I found the movie really slooow, tried hard to get into it however there were some good moments and highlight how seemingly innocent people could still unwittingly get dragged into the horrors of war.

Nothing "Good" about it.

An interesting film with a good story however I was constantly distracted by the fact that every German sounded oddly like a proper Englishman. Why Viggo is able to speak French in the movie but not even try to put on a German accent confuses me.

Interesting film showing the subtle allure of power on good people

A complex 'morality play' - interesting depiction of small decisions with big consequences and the difficulty of a hard choice 'now' or go with the flow (which appears fairly harmless) but leads deeper and deeper into a very deep hole. The 'barber-shop quartet' was actually a kind of disassociation experienced during stressful times when the dubious morality of certain actions came to the fore.

The whole time I was watching this I was constantly being reminded that it was a stage play adapted for film. A couple of dramatic devices really jarred, the barbershop 'quartet' style singers that popped up in unepected locales to name but one. Viggo Mortensen looked understandably pained throughout the whole experience, less I expect to do with finding himself a reluctant Nazi and more to do with wondering what on earth was going on.

Very well acted however very slow without real interesting bits. Let me push it this way you have seen better in other movies so not worth your time and money. Not a film I would watch again.