The Good German is set in post-war Berlin, and follows George Clooney as a military journalist who gets dragged into a murder investigation. It's film noir to the tee, with Cate Blanchett doing her very best pout as the girl George just has to help, and Tobey Maguire as a wormy little American enjoying the spoils of war.

The acting is solid and the mystery keeps your attention, but most noticeable is the cinematography. Director Steven Soderbergh films everything on 1945 equipment, meaning the picture is textured black and white, and the sound quality crackles, a little like an old record. It's all very serious, and everyone seems quite pleased with themselves for filming something old-style.

The trouble is, after the novelty wears off you're left with a standard piece of noir, a genre which has been done to death, and more recently done in more interesting ways (like last year's Brick, that brought the genre to technicolour high school with pleasing results). The characters are a little stilted, the most interesting (Tobey Maguire) barely used, and even George's usual charisma is buried under a protagonist with few reasons to root for.

Though the film successfully mirrors its genre and period, it never seems to bring anything new. It becomes a film that, considering the people behind it, should have been much more than just 'good'.