History YMMV / GoodByeLenin

* ValuesDissonance: Ariane winds up marrying her boss at Burger King and has a daughter with him, but he is pretty absent. In the film itself, they are portrayed as a loving couple, but with the rise of awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace, this can be a bit more difficult to look at.

** Was Ariane, Alex's sister apathetic and unhelpful in the charade? Or was she the OnlySaneWoman who is already troubled with being a single mother whose degree is suddenly useless?

** TheReveal [[spoiler: that she was planning to flee to the West with her husband and got cold feet at the last moment]] gives a new perspective to Christiane's motivations. Was she really a true believer in the GDR or she was just pretending to be one to shield her children from the less pleasant aspects of life under Communism, especially when one of the member of the family is a defector?

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: To what extent was Alex's charade done out of love and overzealous concern for his mother, versus nostalgia for the past and his suddenly-lost country?

** Was Arianne, Alex's sister apathetic and unhelpful in the charade? Or was she the OnlySaneWoman who is already troubled with being a single mother whose degree is suddenly useless?

** Alex and Arianne progressively finding out that [[spoiler: that their father didn't abandon them willingly but it was their mother who decided not to join him along with the family out of fear. He has been writing them letters for all those years and they never received them.]]

** Alex and Arianne progressively finding out that [[spoiler: that their father didn't abandon them willingly but it was their mother who decided not to join him along with the family out of fear. He has been writing them letters for all those years and they never received them.]]

* TearJerker: Several moments, but the biggest is the ending, [[spoiler: when Alex and the others hold a funeral for his mother and he comments on how he'll remember her and the country she was part of and died with. All while old footage of East Germany streets and his mother and sister at summer camp is shown]].

* AcceptableTargets: Punk culture, if a tasteless party Alex and his girlfriend attend is anything to go by.

** During [[spoiler:'President' Jähn]]'s address to the nation, the national anthem of East Germany plays in the background, and then swells to a crescendo as the scene shifts [[spoiler:to the Reunification celebrations]].

* LoveItOrHateIt: The film got a lot of positive reviews from people familiar with TheThemeParkVersion of the GDR, but even then found some criticism for portraying what was supposedly a run down dystopia in a favorable light at times. People who actually lived in the GDR tend to hate it for its often inaccurate portrayal of many things or, seeing as it's a comedy, failing of portraying most of the real problems many East Germans faced when their country and society disappeared basically overnight (the job crisis and resulting mass-poverty being a massive one that the movie ''entirely ignores'' with the exception of showing unemployed adults and some rather unsavory rock n roll parties). Even then the film is popular among the East German ostalgie movement for showing that there were people who legitimately loved their own socialist nation.

* TearJerker: Several moments, but the biggest is the ending, [[spoiler: when Alex and the others hold a funeral for his mother and he comments on how he'll remember her and the country she was part of and died with. All while old footage of East Germany streets and his mother and sister at summer camp is shown]].
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The movie while coming out in 2003 examines the transition from communism to capitalism in the former East Germany.This was an important issue in the 90's and early 2000's in Germany.For germans born after reunification this issue is at most a curiosity.

* TearJerker: Several moments, but the biggest is the ending, [[spoiler: when Alex and the others hold a funeral for his mother and he comments on how he'll remember her and the country she was part of and died with. All while old footage of East Germany streets and his mother and sister at summer camp is shown]].

* LoveItOrHateIt: The film got a lot of positive reviews from people familiar with TheThemeParkVersion of the GDR, but even then found some criticism for portraying what was supposedly a run down dystopia in a favorable light at times. People who actually lived in the GDR tend to hate it for its often inaccurate portrayal of many things or, seeing as it's a comedy, failing of portraying most of the real problems many East Germans faced when their country and society disappeared basically overnight (the job crisis and resulting mass-poverty being a massive one that the movie ''entirely ignores'' with the exception of showing unemployed adults and some rather unsavory rock n roll parties). Even then the film is popular among the East German ostalgie movement for showing that there were people who legitimately loved their own socialist nation. BaseBreaker indeed.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: To what extent was Alex's charade done out of love and overzealous concern for his mother, versus nostalgia for the past and his suddenly-lost country?
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Assuming the cab driver really ''is'' supposed to be Sigmund Jähn, this could count. In real life, Jähn had managed to work as a freelance consultant for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) following reunification in 1990, prior to which he was in the East German army where he had risen to the rank of Major General, hardly making him likely to be as down on his luck as the movie suggests.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: During [[spoiler:'President' Jähn]]'s address to the nation, the national anthem of East Germany plays in the background, and then swells to a crescendo as the scene shifts [[spoiler:to the Reunification celebrations]].

* LoveItOrHateIt: The film got a lot of positive reviews from people familiar with TheThemeParkVersion of the GDR. People who actually lived in the GDR tend to hate it for its often inaccurate portrayal of many things or, seeing as it's a comedy, failing of portraying most of the real problems many East Germans faced when their country and society disappeared basicly overnight (the job crisis and resulting mass-poverty being a massive one that the movie ''entirely ignores'').

* LoveItOrHateIt: The film got a lot of positive reviews from people familiar with TheThemeParkVersion of the GDR. People who actually lived in the GDR tend to hate it for its often inaccurate portrayal of many things or, seeing as it's a comedy, failing of portraying most of the real problems many East Germans faced when their country and society disappeared basicly overnight (the job crisis being a massive one that the movie ''entirely ignores'').

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Assuming the cab driver really ''is'' supposed to be Sigmund Jähn, this could count. In real life, Jähn had managed to work as a freelance consultant for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) following reunification in 1990, though what he was doing ''just before'' reunification seems uncertain.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mo59IyQbro&list=RD6mo59IyQbro#t=3 The main theme]], which plays when Alex's sneaks out and sees for herself how Berlin has changed.

** And the short, [[TearJerker but touching]], piano piece at the beginning and end of the film.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Was Alex's whole charade done out of love and overzealous concern for his mother, or is he also nostalgic for the past?

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Was Alex's whole charade done out of love and overzealous concern for his mother, or his he also nostalgic for the past?

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: During [[spoiler:'President' Jähn]]'s address to the nation, the national anthem of East Germany plays in the background, and then swells to a crescendo as the scene shifts [[spoiler:to the Reunification celebrations]].