I liked The Lives of Others much more than I liked Good Bye, Lenin!, because the former dealt with the subtle interior changes a man undergoes in his life over time, and the big price to pay - with no societal recognition - for doing the right thing. The Lives of Others had much better beats than a similar film, The Conversation (1974), which also dealt with the topic of spying, but did not convey the price to pay for doing the right thing.

Good Bye, Lenin!, on the other hand, is a cultural film - basically the surface differences between East versus West Berlin (clothes, music, food manufacturers, etc.), and how rapidly East Berlin adopted the culture of West Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The plot itself was pretty flimsy, and I didn't care very much for the actors (vs. the main actor in The Lives of Others was incredible). The cultural "fish out of water" stuff was done better with Look Who's Back? (2015). There were a couple of emotional beats that hit, though, in Good Bye, Lenin - basically where the daughter realizes the father did not abandon the family, and may still love them.

Overall I would give it a 5/10 or so - it was a bit interesting seeing how rapidly East Berlin changed in its culture and how, but it didn't have the depth of character development or wrestling with deeper spritiual/metaphysical issues that I care about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye,_Lenin!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5767722&forum_id=2,#49223589)