Did you ever finish The Lives of Others?
I did (along with
After the Wedding), but I'm having trouble putting together my thoughts on it. I guess I was a little underwhelmed, but that sounds harsher than it's meant to. I wanted to delve deeper into the characters and the story, but the film seemed to stay pretty close to the surface of things (somewhat necessitated by Weisler's stoic nature). It that respect, I was reminded (oddly enough) of
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — another film that didn't make many missteps, but still seemed to fall well short of its potential.
So the real problem, of course, is that I wanted a cross between
The Conversation and
The Conformist. That's a pretty high standard.
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