The Lives of Others
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 18+. A Catholic review of this movie for parents.
Our review
This movie is for grown-ups only. It takes place in East Germany, where secret police spied on ordinary people. One officer listens in on a writer, and what he hears changes his heart. He gives up his own career to protect the man. Few films show a conscience waking up as well as this one. Wiesler gains nothing and loses everything for doing right, and he does it in secret. The adult content is real: several sex scenes, a prostitute shown nude, a powerful man who coerces an actress, a suicide and a violent death in the street, and pill addiction. None of it is played for fun, and adults who can handle it will find a film about the worth of one hidden good act.
For parents
R, and Common Sense Media says 17 and up. Lumen says adults. This is not a film for family night or for younger teens. Know before you watch: Common Sense Media logs several sex scenes with nudity, a man with a nude prostitute, and sex traded for safety, which Christian Spotlight describes as an implied rape in a car. A blacklisted friend takes his own life, and the actress dies under a truck after betraying the man she loves. The playwright and the actress live together unmarried, and the film never questions it. For older viewers, the Catechism's words fit the story: deep in his conscience man finds a law he did not write and must obey (CCC 1776). Ask: what first moves Wiesler? Was it the couple's love, or disgust at his bosses? Is he right to hide evidence in secret to protect the playwright? Christa-Maria gives in under threat. How much blame does she carry, and how much belongs to those who broke her?