NoPantsBatman
The director Stephen Daldry brings to life The Reader, a romance between a teenage boy, Michael Berg (David Kross), and an older woman, Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz). It's filled with hard emotions, love, drama and a touch of sexuality.The story goes along the years 1965 and 1995, where Michael is played by two actors, David Kross as young Michael and Ralph Fiennes and adult Michael. In these 124 minutes, we get to see the first love of young Michael, the difficulties a teenager goes through when dealing and understanding someone from the opposite sex, especially an older woman. We also get to see the enthusiasm, anxiety and passion that this first love makes him feel, like nothing else in the world mattered, only her.I went through a roller coaster of emotions throughout the movie. I felt in love, devastated, afraid, pity. A lot of things (good, but mostly bad) happened between Michael and Hanna during the years, but, somehow, a little flame of love and caring remained untouchable, even if they did not show it to one another. In a way, it made me feel like I was watching a fairy tale surrounded by a horrifying reality, waiting to see prince charming saving the damsel in distress.The music throughout the movie was on point. Right moment, right time, right tune and right tone. Really helped intensify the emotions I was feeling, as well as guide them on the correct path.A captivating love story, kept me glued to the screen from start to finish, with a lot of details to enjoy and feelings to feel. A great work, a great watch, a great time. 8 out of 10.
classicsoncall
Wow, I don't know what to make of this picture. It's so good as a fictional story that it feels like it could be a true one. It presents many moral dilemmas, not the least of which is it's treatment of Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) as almost a sympathetic character when in reality she was something of a monster. During her trial, Hanna uses a standard defense used by many former Nazi defendants who stated that they were merely doing their job in whatever capacity they were employed. In one respect, one could almost make the case that there was an element of mental illness involved in her make up, particularly when she comments on why she didn't allow the prisoners in the burning church an opportunity to escape and survive. There's that, and Hanna's overwhelming obsession to keep her illiteracy a secret, to the extent of taking the fall for the other women on trial with her who may have had even more culpability, if that were even possible.I'd like to say that Kate Winslet deserved her Best Actress Win for the picture but I haven't seen any of the other films her competition appeared in. Strictly speaking though, Winslet's performance arcs through all the ranges of human experience one can imagine and presents a thoroughly conflicted character. Ralph Fiennes also turns in a worthy performance, and I would have to concur with another reviewer who felt that the character Michael Berg may indeed have lived a wasted life. His attempt at rehabilitating Hanna in her prison cell may have seemed noteworthy, but one wonders how much of it was done out of compassion and how much out of guilt.What probably appalled me most about the story was when the five women on trial with Hanna all received a mere sentence of four years and three months for their role as concentration camp guards. Even if one were to apply some sort of moral equivalency to their role along side Hanna, the idea that Hanna received a life sentence made their punishment seem minor by comparison. All because their feigned indignation made Hanna out to be the leader of the group, when in fact, any one of them could have expressed some humanity during the church incident that the others might have fallen in line with.
