With a title like Good (2008), I expect a lot from such a film as a practicing Catholic.  I cannot say it lived up to that word, at least on the surface.  If you want a movie that shows you how not to be good, or more specifically, avoiding moral uprightness, then it serves a purpose.  The problem is that the main character, a college professor in Nazi Germany named John Halder (Viggo Mortensen), knows the difference between right and wrong.  Instead of choosing the correct path, he opts for what is easier or expedient.  Meanwhile, with society going to pieces around him, he claims that everything is outside of his power.  These are excuses and you will see why as I describe the rest to you.

One would not think that John is Good at the beginning as he has been summoned to the Reich’s Chancellery to meet with Philipp Bouhler (Mark Strong).  Philipp is a Nazi in charge of implementing Adolf Hitler’s ideas on euthanasia, which have been inspired by a book John wrote some years ago.  As context, know that there are a number of flashbacks in the film, but I will be telling the story in a more linear fashion.  The inspiration for John’s novel stems from his early life.  Early in the Nazis’ rise to power, he is living with his wife, Helen Halder (Anastasia Hille), their children, and his ill mother (Gemma Jones).  Helen is absent minded, mom is mentally unstable, and it all leaves John to take care of everything.  On this particular day, he is attempting to cook dinner while Helen and mother demand his attention.  Then he visited by his father-in-law, Brunau (Ralph Riach), a Nazi who is also meddling in the goings-on at that moment.  Work is John’s escape, but his lecture is interrupted by a Nazi book burning rally on the quad below his class window.  While his students gawk at the spectacle, his boss comes to him and tells him he must get rid of certain readings in his curriculum.  It is not a pleasing prospect for him, and their exchange is overheard by a female student of his named Anne Hartman (Jodie Whittaker).  She is attracted to him, coming to his office late at night with made up excuses, and they talk about wanting to make a difference.  John is working on a novel wherein the lead character kills his wife, who has a terminal disease, because he loves her.  Please note this is not a position supported by the Catholic Church, but you can see why Hitler might have liked it, sadly.  At any rate, Anne and John’s relationship becomes physical, and the only person he confides this to is his Jewish best friend and psychoanalyst Maurice Israel Glückstein (Jason Isaacs).  Maurice is all for the dalliance, understanding the strains under which John is operating, but the literature professor still feels guilty.  John tries to end the liaison, but Anne gets distracted by yet another Nazi parade and their intention of “making a difference” in the world.  It does not take long for him to become separated from Helen, and to take an apartment with Anne.  Meanwhile, his book gains more attention from the Nazis, who ask him to write a paper clarifying his position on euthanasia.  To gain the recognition that he seeks, though, involves doing something he has heretofore avoided on principle: joining the party.  When questioned about it, he claims that he has always intended to but never had a solid reason.  With the promise of promotion, he decides to become a card-carrying Nazi, with all the accoutrements and what is supposed to be a ceremonial rank.  With this new life, he finally gets around to hanging out with Maurice again, with Anne joining them.  During their conversation, it is revealed that John has taken the swastika.  Maurice is horrified by the development, but John claims that it will never get as bad as they fear.  If you know your history, you will understand how hollow this sounds.  All the while, John continues to be drawn deeper into Nazi affairs, such as when the party makes his novel into a movie.  Over the next few months, things do take that terrible turn.  Increasingly, John must meet with Maurice in secret.  During one of their furtive dinners, Maurice asks that John use his influence with the government to get his Jewish friend a train ticket to leave the country.  With some hesitation, and money, John eventually agrees.  However, his attempt is thwarted when party associates of his see him at the train station and get somewhat suspicious when he tries to purchase a one way to Paris.  Having failed, John pleads with Maurice again, saying they will not touch the psychoanalyst because of his war record.  Not long thereafter, however, a dinner party John is hosting is interrupted by news of an assassination in Paris carried out by Jews.  It is the pretext the Nazis need to implement the infamous Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass, which was a pogrom against any Jews remaining in Berlin.  Though John is finally able to obtain safe passage for Maurice, it is too little, too late.  Being forced to don a uniform, John is on the streets to witness the terrible destruction of Jewish people and property.  In the chaos, he tries to locate Maurice, but is unable.  Further, John had left instructions with Anne to give Maurice the ticket if he shows up, but she claims he never came.  A few years later, John uses his influence to search Nazi records for Maurice’s location.  In doing so, John learns that Anne had lied and had turned Maurice over to the Nazis.  We conclude with John traveling to a concentration camp trying to find Maurice, and finally being confronted with the awful truth he had tried to ignore.

As alluded to in my synopsis of Good, it is hard to ignore what is really going on in Nazi Germany.  Maurice is clear-eyed about it, but John chooses to believe that nothing truly bad will ever happen.  What should also be emphasized by John is how good of a person everyone perceives him to be.  Though Maurice has problems with him, he knows that John could be persuaded to get a friend out of the country.  Further, Helen is understanding of John’s decision to leave, and everyone else considers him to be gentle and kind.  What John lacks is courage.  With it being Lent, I am trying to be less critical of my fellow man.  I say this because John is in a difficult position.  Sometimes, a situation is so complex that it is difficult to know what is the right thing to do.  When confronted with such complexity, it is best to talk to someone.  Us Catholics have an option in this vein, and that is having a spiritual director.  Before I began practicing my Faith seriously, I had never heard of such a position.  As I began to meet people with a deep and impressive relationship with God, I kept hearing about their interactions with their directors.  They were (and are) people a Christian can turn to in order to navigate the sometimes tricky task that is Faith.  It is not always easy to know the correct path, but having someone willing to listen to you is helpful for spiritual growth.  Though this movie is not about religion, it is in the idea of having someone to talk to that things fall apart for John.  He has Maurice.  While it is not accurate to call Maurice a spiritual guide, they do agree that Nazi rhetoric is dangerous.  It is Maurice that sticks to his principles, whereas John’s judgement is clouded by ambition and worldly pursuits.

My judgement is that Good is worth a view, though with a word of caution.  The sequence of events is a little confusing, and it moves slowly.  What it is good for, though, is seeing an example of how the powerful can manipulate a person and twist that person’s morals.