If there is any justice, this year’s Academy Award for best foreign-language film will go to “The Lives of Others,” a movie about a world in which there is no justice.

Again, I fear Lane gives away too much in this review; read it afterward, instead of beforehand. But this is a nice conclusion:

You might think that “The Lives of Others” is aimed solely at modern Germans. A movie this strong, however, is never parochial, nor is it period drama. Es ist für uns. It’s for us.