THE WALLS HAVE EARS IN `LIVES OF OTHERS'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's astounding debut, ``The Lives of Others,'' shows how first-rate thrillers don't have to feature buildings crashing into Venetian canals, high body counts or even bullets for that matter. The movie, set primarily in 1980s East Germany, captures the suffocating fear and despair that gripped that country in the days when neighbors betrayed neighbors in the name of state security.

Smart twists and turns abound, leading to a perfect, profound moment that satisfies like few other movie endings.

The movie begins in East Berlin in 1984. Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), a cunning member of Stasi, East Germany's secret police, has grown bored, maybe a little complacent. When his boss tells him that celebrated playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) is beyond reproach (not to mention the ``only non-subversive writer read in the West''), Wiesler decides to bug the man's apartment and dig up some dirt. No artist can be that clean.

Wiesler's idea goes over great with Culture Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme), who, unbeknownst to anyone, has the hots for Dreyman's live-in lover, celebrated actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). If Wiesler busts Dreyman, Hempf can have her to himself.

Dreyman, though, genuinely believes in East Germany's socialist ideals, making evidence hard to come by. And as Wiesler sets up shop in the attic of the couple's apartment house, listening to the intimate exchanges between Dreyman and Christa-Maria, he begins to see clearly how empty his own life is. That epiphany leads Wiesler down a path of manipulation and shifting allegiances as his relationship with the couple grows more tangled and complex.

Writer-director von Donnersmarck vividly captures the dispiriting atmosphere of a country where the state controls its citizens through fear and terror. The Stasi employed a network of 100,000 trained citizen informers who monitored their neighbors, looking for the slightest sign of anyone who thought differently or was critical of the government.

How crippling can that existence be? Von Donnersmarck's answer is Wiesler, who begins the movie more machine than man. But then the cracks show, his loneliness grows, and the hollowness inside his heart practically explodes. Wiesler's journey toward self-awareness is fascinating, inspiring, even empowering. It's one of the great moviegoing experiences of the year.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

THE LIVES OF OTHERS - Three and one half stars

(R: sex, nudity)

Starring: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Running time: 2 hr. 17 min.

Playing: One-week Oscar-qualifying engagement at AMC Century City 15. Returns to theaters in February.

In a nutshell: Gripping thriller about crippling fear in the waning days of Communist East Germany.

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In 1980s East Berlin, a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his actress girlfriend (Martina Gedeck) are spied on by Communist party informers in ``The Lives of Others.''