Movie Report: "Lives of Others" and "The Namesake"

I have seen two very good movies recently. Lives of Others won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language movie, an award it deserved in my opinion. It is set in East Germany, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It depicts what happens to the observer and the observed when the East German secret service spies on a popular author and actress. I gave it my highest rating, five stars.

The Namesake is about an Indian family that emigrates to New York City. It is a very warm movie, reminiscent of My Big Fat Greek Wedding in its depiction of the clash of cultures between first and second generation immigrants. This movie is less successful because the plot is a little thin. It is an adaptation of a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, a book which I have not read. My wife, who has read it says the book was better (but then books are almost always better.) I gave this movie four stars.