Movie-The Reader

The Reader was nominated for three major Oscars; Best Picture, Kate Winslet as Best Actress, and Stephen Daldrey for Best Director. Kate Winslet won for best actress.

The film is told in a series of flashbacks, with the Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg remembering his past life, as a teenager in Berlin. He is now a somewhat wealthy lawyer, but obviously has trouble emotionally connecting with women, as we see in the opening scene.

As a teenage he has an encounter with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz (Winslet), before he comes down with scarlet fever. She aids him as he is becoming ill, and when he recovers, months later, he comes to find her and thank her. And this sets off a love affair between the two of them that lasts a summer, but will have long time repercussions on Berg's life in several ways.

First, as a teenager, he honestly loves this woman, who has taken his virginity and taught him how to make love. And she leaves him, just leaves one day without an explanation. This accounts for much of his inability to open up to any women. But as a college student, he has another encounter with Schmitz that even makes more a mark. You see, she is brought to trial in Germany for war crimes during WWII where she was a prison guard at a concentration camp. I won't give away all the plot points involving this trial, but there are terribly disturbing scenes in the courtroom. And both Berg and Schmitz have much to be guilty about as their lives go on.

Berg and Schmitz meet yet again later in life. And the scenes are awkward and real. Both actors here really flesh out the contradictions of their characters. Neither is one dimensional at all, neither is either good or bad, but very complex, as are their feeling for one another.

The Reader (2008) is an excellent film. At first I did not think it was addressing the harm that Hanna was doing to Michael, but that did emerge later, very clearly. The character of Hanna Schmitz herself is very complex and tough to handle, and Kate Winslet took the role on with deftness. Many other actresses may not have been able to handle the multiple ambiguities of this character. But she is a character to remember, and Winslet bears much of the responsibility for that. Also a special mention of the actor who plays Berg as a young man, David Kross. He did an fantastic job.

I really recommend this movie. Not exactly light-hearted fair, but it is really intriguing, and it stays with you for a long time.