The Reader Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

brilliantly acted, thought provoking

An excellent film which is quintessentially a powerful love story set in post-war Germany between a woman and a young (very young!) man. Their affair ends abruptly but their lives join once more many years later under very different circumstances.

This film is very thought provoking and the viewpoint of the older vs younger generation on the atrocitites that happened during the war is very noticeable.

I really enjoyed this film and thought about it long after viewing. Well worth watching.

The Reader

David Hare and Stephen Daldry, the team responsible for the masterpiece 'The Hours' now go even darker with this period drama set in post-WWII Germany. In an articulate and compelling screenplay, Hare brings to life the controversial novel by Bernhard Schlink, in which bus conductor Hannah Schmitz (Kate Winslet) starts to romance a 15 year old school boy, Micheal (David Kross). This romance has a strange routine to it. He arrives at her flat, undresses, reads to her - passages from his school books, the classics or holiday guides - then they make love. This grows into a passionate and meaningful sexual relationship between them, as he starts to sacrifice spending time with his friends and family, in order to go to Hannah's apartment for their afternoon routine. This results in some frank, but well handled, sex scenes between the Michael and the woman twice his age. Then, unexpectedly, she disappears. He grows older, hurt by the sudden end to his new-found sexual desires and the love he had for Hannah grows into an ache. This leads him, moody and erratic, to take Law at university, thereby changing his surroundings and associates in order to forget the hurt. However, he does meet Hannah again, but in very different and shocking circumstances. There is no denying that the script's eloquence and intelligence are a gift to the actors, especially Kate Winslet, who builds on such wonderful dialogue with her usual excellence. As further plot revelations are uncovered, it may be hard for viewers to retain some sympathy for Hannah's character, but Winslet gives her such a high degree of humanity and depth it is impossible not to find Hannah Schmitz fascinating if not likable. It may be disconcerting to see the actors speaking in English with German accents, reading from English-language books, while things like street signs, public notices and even calendars remain written in German, but it doesn't spoil the mood of the piece, nor does it reduce its level of integrity or believability.

well-polished expensive nothing

Imagine that you are house-hunting. The estate agent hands you particulars of this new property that has everything on your list - spotless decor, quiet neighbourhood, the spaces, bathrooms, kitchen and family-friendly garden that you requested - but you hate it. It does nothing for your spirit but rather requires that you give it love instead of it being a positive factor in your life.

That's what I felt about this film. It seems to say 'be impressed - this is heavyweight stuff. Love death and the holocaust - how not to be moved?' Well, sorry; for me it didn't work. Where was the magic of the cinema in this film? I wasn't moved, or shaken or stirred. I admired the professionalism and beautiful acting, but that wasn't enough.

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Unmitigated tosh

While undoubtedly well crafted and technically accomplished, this film seeks to evoke sympathy for a character who remains seemingly more ashamed by illiteracy than the murder of scores of human beings. The sex scenes seem designed to make the audience better disposed toward Winslet's character in anticipation of her later exposure as an unrepentant Nazi and participant in mass-murder.

Combine this with the Ralph Feinnes character who becomes devestated by facts that he could not have known about at the time and the film's general use of the holocaust to add thematic weight to the whole sorry tale and you have a film that is an insult to any thinking person

Powerful, moving, thought provoking

Most of us have key relationships in our lives that affect us for years after they end, and herein lies the love story between an older woman and a teenage boy. The story is made powerful enough with a stunning performance by Kate Winslett, but the dimension of her part in the Jewish Holocaust leaves the watcher compelled to engage with themes of responsibility and punishment, persecution and shame.

It seems to me that 65 years after the actual events we are beginning to have enough distance from the horror of the holocaust that we are attempting to understand what makes a person act or stay silent, kill (the job of every soldier) or refuse to kill... No longer black and white, this film weaves shadow with light and attempts to show the complexity of each human situation.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Difficult film

I imagine that this film will annoy some people for trivialising the holocaust since at the heart of the movie is a love affair between a teenager and an older woman which has powerful effects for the young man as he grows to manhood (I hope I am avoiding spoilers here). For me, while I would agree that the main moral issues were reduced, there is still plenty of human complexity to get your teeth into. The performance from Kate Winslet is indeed very good, although she is asked to age rather too much to be believable. The film has an intelligent script and competent direction of believable historical settings. If you were moved by the book I would certainly recommend this film.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Did anyone read the script?

Crass, preposterous and poorly directed and these are some of the more generous thoughts on this piffle.

Dear Kate must have got her oscar for best nips, though in fairness she did her best trying to portray three different characters each distinct from the other.

It's tempting to blame the novel on which this is based. But from all accounts this is even worse as it makes more explicit the claim that Kate's character realised the holocaust was wrong simply by learning to read. Possibly the only thing that director Stephen Baldry did right was to excise this from the cinema version.

Excellent & Gripping

This film is very difficult to leave feeling either good or bad however you do become gripped in the tale. The subject matter is hard hitting and at times emotional, Kate Winslets performance is certainly deserving of the her recent awards and nominations.

This is a classy film. There are a lot of sex scenes in this film which become a little overbearing at times but they do not distract from the overall enjoyment.

Highly reccommended!

The Reader

A truly wonderful, gritty thought provoking film. A must see.

[Highly rated reviewer]

The Reader

Its pretty obvious that awards season is on us when we are suddenly hit with a plethora of movies that either go for the heart strings, the artistic, the period or even all three. Last years contenders included No Country For Old Men (the best one) and There Will Be Blood (Sorry still hate it) which obviously went on to do rather well. This years has gone into full swing, although why these films are always released in January is a mystery to me. If you release them the previous April does that mean they’ll be forgotten by the time we get to the following Feb?

No of course not, yet still just in case Warner Bros still decided to re-release The Dark Knight even though no-one who saw the film would forget how good it was, let alone the score and obviously Heath Ledger. But that’s understandable cos a blockbuster hardly ever manages to make the list come Oscars time. However some films are made surely with the sights set not on money but on awards. The kudos it brings can add millions to the value of companies and attract bigger name players to them.

The Reader is without doubt a film made for awards buzz. Kate Winslet rather famously parodied herself in Ricky Gervais’s Extras series where she was attempting to win an Oscar by playing a lead role in a film based around the Holocaust. In a case of life imitating art she’s now made the choice to star in a vehicle not too dissimilar. The Holocaust though is not the main focus here, merely being one element to add to its awards film checklist. The main focus is the coming of age story of young Michael Berg played in his youth by David Kross (who has the look of a young Val Kilmer at times).

There are a couple of issues I had with this movie though that led me to be rather distracted as to its worthiness on the list. The film is well done but the fact that Kate Winslets character, Hanna seduces a 15 year old boy has hardly kicked up any fuss at all in the pre release build up, something that surely would in this day in age be frowned upon with some disdain by today’s society.

Added to that is the argument about when nudity crosses the line between being artistic and being soft porn. In the opening section of the film Winslet is rarely in any clothing. While to start with we get that its necessary in setting up the scene, as their relationship goes from lust to something much more involving, I found that it became redundant and in some ways distracting from the narrative. We get shes comfortable to be naked around Michael but it just felt like any opportunity that could be had to strip Winslet down they used.

The movie also falls down a little in that it feels quite a lot like three different Oscar potential movies that have been stitched together, going from coming of age to courtroom drama to seeking recompense in Michaels older years (done by Ralph Fiennes who’s hired to be permanently depressed).

This movie is very well done, with all actors on high quality form. Winslet is very strong, and worthy for the Awards plaudits she has already received. Kross I think has been badly overlooked in all the hype, and found him to be excellent as the naïve young boy who’s education doesn’t stop just at school. However the Reader lacks a cohesion and narrative to draw you in or make you feel anything and by the end of 2 hours that’s a little disappointing. Add all this together and The Reader might find it very hard to walk away with any of the major nods this year (barring Best Actress of course).