Joseph Kanon

The Good German -- U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismer becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt, a former lover whose missing husband is the object of a manhunt by the American and Russian armies.

U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismer becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt, a former lover whose missing husband is the object of a manhunt by the American and Russian armies.

U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismer becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt, a former lover whose missing husband is the object of a manhunt by the American and Russian armies.

Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, "The Good German" takes place in the ruins of post-World War II Berlin, where U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismer (George Clooney) becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), a former lover whose missing husband is the object of a manhunt by both the American and Russian armies. Intrigue mounts as Jake tries to uncover the secrets Lena may be hiding in her desperation to get herself and her husband out of Berlin. Tully (Tobey Maguire), a soldier in the American army motor pool assigned to drive Jake around Berlin, has black market connections that may be Lena's way out - or lead them all into even darker territory. Jake soon discovers that it is nearly impossible to unearth the truth in a time and place where people are still reeling from the horrors of the war, desperate to salvage their humanity in the shadow of the often unbearable knowledge of what they did to survive.

The war is over and an American journalist is assigned the task of covering the peace in Berlin. He seeks out his wartime mistress, but now that the fighting has ceased, she has every intention of burying her sins and escaping her dark past.

Who knows what American journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) expected to find in postwar Berlin? Peace, maybe. Or at least a story. But certainly not Lena (Cate Blanchett), his beautiful, embittered one-time love. And not the trail of secrecy and deception that leads from Lena to the scheming young corporal (Tobey Maguire) who's her new lover...and to a murder no one seems interested in solving. Except Jake. Steven Soderbergh directs three of today's top talents in this zigzag thriller that's both an atmospheric homage to 1940s filmmaking and a deft modern film noir. The Good German is 'haunting and hypnotic, it's pure moviegoing bliss' (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).