SPOILERS

This is a fascinating German film. On one hand, many elements of the movie are familiar to American viewers--the yutz boyfriend of your sister, childhood dreams, making a living at a dead-end job, the nerdy friend...but this is an inherently German film. The major thrust of it deals with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany and the effect this has on a typical East German family.

The plot comes into effect when the mother, a fairly loyal Socialist, spots her son at a protest demonstration. This shocks her into having a heart attack; she goes into a coma and wakes up eight months later...after the wall has fallen and Germany has reunified. Her son is advised to advoid shocking her into having another attack and realizes that telling her about these political changes will do just that. So he doesn't tell her and hides the fact that the Cold War is over. Things get slightly out of hand when he doesn't just hide it from her, he lies to her in order to explain oddities (the influx of West German luxuries, he says, is because so many West Germans are fleeing the oppression of capitalism). In fact, he fakes it by creating fake news programs with his friend for his mother to watch.

One of the interesting threads in the film, not satisfactorily explored enough by the movie, is the notion of who is he (Alex) doing it for. Yes, he wants to protect his mother's fragile psyche...but there's also the sense that he's rewriting history to make things how he wants it to be. His "final" news broadcast, produced right before his mother dies, features his childhood hero becoming president and ordering the destruction of the Berlin Wall (he then edits footage to make it seem like West Germans are fleeing into East Germany). Is Alex a loving son or a neurotic liar? Or both?

The film has an element of farce at times, especially in the ludicrosity of Alex's increasing bizarre news broadcasts. Some elements seem flawed--his girlfriend is never really explored--one minute she's mad at him, the next nothing. Alex's search for his father is just okay. But at its heart, it's a charming yet edgy film filled with strong performances. Even if one doesn't understand the political implications, one can understand the family and relationship struggles--it's almost like a German "Garden State" in this regard (in fact, there are some scenes that just plain scream "Garden State" like the long zoom away from the couple sitting there and the basic sense of a hero, a girl, and a best friend).