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What is the nature of guilt--and how can the human spirit survive when confronted with deep and horrifying truths? The Reader, a hushed and haunting meditation on these knotty questions, is sorrowful and shocking, yet leavened by a deep love story that is its heart. In postwar Germany, young schoolboy Michael (German actor David Cross) meets and begins a tender romance with the older, mysterious Hanna (Kate Winslet, whose performance is a revelation). The two make love hungrily in Hanna's shabby apartment, yet their true intimacy comes as Michael reads aloud to Hanna in bed, from his school assignments, textbooks, even comic books. Hanna delights in the readings, and Michael delights in Hanna. Years later, the two cross paths again, and Michael (played as an adult by Ralph Fiennes) learns, slowly, horrifyingly, of acts that Hanna may have been involved in during the war. There is a war crimes trial, and the accused at one point asks the panel of prosecutors: "Well, what would you have done?" It is that question--as one German professor says later: "How can the next generation of Germans come to terms with the Holocaust?"--that is both heartbreaking and unanswerable. Winslet plays every shade of gray in her portrayal of Hanna, and Fiennes is riveting as the man who must rewrite history--his own and his country's--as he learns daily, hourly, of deeds that defy categorization, and morality. "No matter how much washing and scrubbing," one character says matter of factly, "some sins don't wash away." The Reader (with nods to similar films like Sophie's Choice and The English Patient dares to present that unnerving premise, without offering an easy solution. --A.T. Hurley
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Passion, politics, crime, war, and justice.,
By
This review is from: The Reader / Le liseur (DVD)
Throughout her illustrious acting career, Kate Winslet has created a delectable smorgasbord of compelling characters in movies such as Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, Hamlet.I would not say Hanna in The Reader is delectable, yet the story more than the character has compelling qualities. Kate Winslet has gained some overdue statuary, a well deserved fifth Oscar nomination, and finally a highly deserved Oscar. The novel of the same name won the Pulitzer Prize, and if you're like me you masy discover this story operates on numerous levels simultaneously, with personal, political, and historical dimensions. On an even deeper level it refers without referring to a nation's guilt and atonement though justice. Act 1 opens with The Innocent yet illicit Love Affair, an act of kindness to a 15 year old boy caught sick in the storm. It helps to know in advance that it happens soon after the second world war. The love scenes are candid and authentic, and for a while, we feel we can empathise with her. For the boy David, it's a sexual awakening that will direct his life. He expands her imagination by reading her the classics. Her passion and initial kindness is tempered by a perplexing coldness. It ends with her unannounced disappearance. Act 2, The Trial, contains the meat of the story, explores the worst aspects of human behavior, a nation's guilt, war crimes. Her coldness now becomes understood in the light of new and incriminating information, quite an inhuman portrait. Yet a new perplexity emerges, her seeming unwillingness to save herself by saying only a few words. Here we have the dilemmas, the crucial decisions made by her and her former lover. Will she help herself? Will Michael help her? Act 3: The Aftermath. On an emotional level, it is an exploration of fear, guilt and shame, and the consequences when we act out of these emotions. On a more personal level is the question, what would we do? There is a quotation by George Santayana: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I must mention David Kross as the young Michael, a very promising performance from this actor. In fact, because of German law he had to wait till he turned 18 before filming the steamier scenes. I think most people will enjoy this movie which I highly recommend, and I hope this was helpful.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winslet at her best,
By
This review is from: The Reader [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
The Reader is set in Germany and the opening scene takes place in 1958. Michael Berg (Kross) is 15 years old and becomes ill on his way home from school. He's helped by Hanna Schmitz (Winslet), who cleans up his mess and ensures that he makes it home. Three months later, he's well enough to go and thank her, and they begin a brief, but intense affair.Hanna appears moody and is quick to anger, but it doesn't usually last for long. There are some fairly graphic sex scenes, although the behavior does fit the characters well. Hanna loves having Michael read to her and it becomes part of his visits. She insists that he read before they have sex. After a while, the affair ends and Michael isn't sure why Hanna left. We see him moving on with his life and studying law in college. Part of his course involves a trip to see a real trial and Michael is stunned to see Hanna among a group of six women who are being charged with war crimes. I only mention this because it's revealed in the trailer. The Reader is not a war film, it's a character study of the effects war can have on people throughout their lives. Imagine being in that situation. Your first experience of sex is something you never forget. It's a very intense memory because it's tied to strong emotions. Michael has a dilemma because he has a piece of information which would help Hanna's case. The problem is, she hasn't volunteered the information herself. Should he allow her to make that decision, or should he present the evidence to ensure that justice is done? The story frequently jumps from 1958 and 1966 to 1995, where Michael (Fiennes plays the older version) is now a successful lawyer. We see how his experience as a child has affected his life. He's unwilling to allow people to get close to him, whether it's a sexual partner or his own daughter. I'm not going to reveal any more of the story because it would ruin the experience if you're watching it for the first time. The acting is superb throughout. Winslet won the Oscar for her performance which spanned 30 years of Hanna's life. It can't have been an easy part to play with the frequent nudity and the strong subject matter. I don't think I have seen a better Winslet performance. Fiennes and Kross are also convincing as Michael Berg. Michael's college professor is played by the always excellent Bruno Ganz, and I loved his subtle performance. If you enjoy good writing and emotional drama with fully-developed characters, The Reader is worth your time.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is NOT a Hollywood-style Holocaust,
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This review is from: The Reader / Le liseur (DVD)
I got this DVD primarily to see what all the fuss was about -- why some in the Jewish American community lobbied the Motion Picture Academy to deny Kate Winslet an Oscar for her performance of Hanna Schmitz. The Jewish American establishment is notorious for its well-funded efforts to shut down any effort that might question its cult of inherited victimhood, its Americanization of the holocaust, and its reinforcing of the popular American myth of WWII as the "good war," won by "the greatest generation" of Americans against Supernatural Evil.It's only too clear what those lobbyists had against the film: it may be about the holocaust but there are no piles of Jewish corpses or hollow-eyed, cadaverous survivors in it -- indeed, there are only two Jews in it, and their roles are small, if pivotal. Worst of all, the story is from a German point of view. How dare those Nazi perpetrators have a position on the holocaust! How dare it not conform to the American construction of it! Sorry folks, this isn't Hollywood. There is no "supernatural evil" in it, and no John Wayne riding in on his Sherman tank to blow up those dang Nazis. There are only people -- people struggling to come to terms with a dark legacy by putting their trust in a legal system that isn't up to the task. The protagonist Michael Berg isn't helping any either, even though he's a law student and should know better. He's refused to disclose to the court evidence that would help to secure a more just verdict in a court case involving six former SS camp guards. The trial is going south because of some nefarious perjury on the part of all six of the defendants. Michael refuses to clear things up. So, like many of the people of the Nazi generation -- his parents' generation -- who went along to get along, he ends up a guilty bystander to a travesty of justice. He pays a heavy price for that. As for Winslet, I've never been a fan, but this performance knocked me out. Wow, did she earn that Oscar! I hope when she got it, she privately gave the finger to the idiots who tried to deprive her of it.
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