OK, I can't stand George Clooney's politics, but I enjoy his work. I've held off seeing this film for some time because of that and I wanted to read the book, I had to get into the mood. The book is a fantastic story of post war Berlin 1945 political intrigue, tension, and human nature and wartime survival amid the ruins of Nazi Germany. The book is always better than the movie, the dialogue in the book was proper in that it read the way it should have been, by that I mean that in the book, they are speaking German but the book is in English, its not translated into American English. Great book. The movie. Well, its good on its own because its filmed in B&W in the "film noir" style so popular right after WWII, but, its terrible what they did to a good book for the sake of making a movie. Read the book, then watch the movie, pay attention to the various film techniques not seen anymore. I hope this style catches on again, doubtful due to B&W not being popular with the younglings.