would you recommend this film-why/why not?

I think this movie is a huge amount of fun. But the fact I am a historian AND a big movie fan who "gets" the way this film is really loaded with complex film and historical references may predispose me to like it more. I thought Maguire was only OK in a badly written role, but the rest of the cast is great. It is a bit on the pastiche side, but what a great one! Old-fashioned (melo)drama with some up-to-date sensibilities about war and personal responsibility. I do not want to be negative, but maybe people who don't like this simply have no frame of references except for the speeded-up cutesy-pie stuff of TV and cheap movies of the last 20 years. It is not your usual movie, that is for sure. Go in expecting something totally different and maybe you won't get thrown by it the way a lot of people seem to be who seem to think it is going to be something else altogether.

Note to self: avoid Noir in future. I think I was born a little close to the time when colour was a luxury and just can't see the point in now copying a sub quality product.
On the positive side, I found the acting excellent, and contrary to my learned colleagues in this thread, I find Tobey Maguire in the role he was always meant to play (I'm sure he's not like this in real life, but his face screams mean spirited & slimy - no idea why he was cast as a superhero).
But...... the dull plot, so agonisingly drawn out and the 40's style acting (hats off to the cast), crushed any limited appreciation there may have been for this style of film.
So, if you like noir, a big maybe, if you don't or fancy a taste, don't waste your time.

Yes; it's good if you like film noir, and would like to see a modern-day attempt at imitating a classic style...






"I've been turned down more times than the beds at the Holiday Inn; I still try"

I found it, more on my second look than my first, to be a deliriously enjoyable movie. The stylisation and atmosphere is just amazing (sorry for sounding like a pretentious critic), more like a studio-bound B-movie, propped up with stock footage (those The Good German was able to use modern techniques to integrate it more smoothly) like Sam Fuller's Verboten! (what I've seen of it), than one of the classic Hollywood films like Casablanca that it was so widely held up against on release. The plot you can take or leave, it's not hugely original (feels like the defecting Nazi scientist thing has been done a hundred times before), and not majorly rewarding to follow, either. As I say, I mainly dig this for the dreamy atmosphere (shades of Lars von Trier's Europa, too).