The realization that we are, in many instances, listening in on actual proceedings gives the film an immediacy that no dramatist could hope to match.

The subject matter apart, the film is a meticulously crafted drama, observing and recording the events, setting mood and creating a sense of time and place that further deepen our involvement.

While Scholl's virtuous life makes her eminently worthy of her own biopic, it doesn't necessarily make her the most interesting subject for a movie.

There's a resonance to Sophie Scholl that crosses borders and approaches the timeless.

There's no moment of release, no instant of sudden redemption in this powerful, moving, and altogether devastating film.

Though Scholl's inquisition and trial are harrowing, there's too little sense of what sort of person Scholl was. We can only grasp at air and guess what it was inside her that drove her to forsake her life in favor of a higher purpose.

The film has a serious, urgent tone, but not a preachy or strident one.

The narrative is tight and compelling, claustrophobic in scope, with acting performances that chill in their understated anxiety and courage.

Through it all, Jentsch is a beacon of bravery and resolve in the darkness of a totalitarian machine. If any actor in an English-language film has given a better performance in the past year, I'd like to see it.

I found this Oscar-nominated film overlong and ultimately disappointing.