Dvd
The Reader
The Reader opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna (played by Kate Winslet, in her Oscar winning performance), a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair.
Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens. Hanna is enthralled as Michael reads to her from The Odyssey, Huck Finn and The Lady with the Little Dog. Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left confused and heartbroken.
Eight years later while Michael (now played by Ralph Fiennes) is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life - this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna's past is revealed, Michael uncovers a deep secret that will impact both of their lives.
Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Jeanette Hain, David Kross
Directed by Stephen Daldry ('The Hours', 'Billy Elliott')
Written by David Hare (based on the book by Bernhard Schlink)
Cinematographer Roger Deakins ('No Country for Old Men', 'The Assassination of Jesse James')
Festivals & Awards Best Actress for Kate Winslet - Academy Awards 2009, BAFTA Awards 2009. Best Supporting Actress for Kate Winslet - Golden Globes 2009, Screen Actors Guild 2009.
Historical, Drama, Adaptation | 2hr 3mins | Rated (R16) | contains sex scenes | Origin: USA, Germany | Official Site »
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The Talk
1 votes / No comments
Flicks review
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5
Who says Holocaust films can't be sexy? For the first hour of The Reader Kate Winslet is mostly naked and always fabulous in playing Mrs. Robinson to a 15-year-old boy. It's the late '50s in Germany, and the spring and autumn lovebirds wile away the after-school hours by working their way through literature's greatest hits.
Based on the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink, this is a refreshingly literate film. Winslet berates her young consort for reading out Lady Chatterley's Lover. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she says, before adding: "Go on." This revere only lasts until a freight-train straight from the stockyards of Auschwitz crunches into the narrative.
In the hands of a lesser filmmaker this change in tone might prove more catastrophic, but director Stephen Daldry instead uses the build-up to fashion a tragic love story with no easy payoffs. Daldry is helped immeasurably by his cast in fashioning this masterpiece - Winslet in particular. The one-time Titanic pinup has shed her girly image and here plays a character who convincingly ages over the course of four decades.
The best film of the year so far, which leaves one final question: How on earth did Slumdog Millionaire win the Oscar for best picture?
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The people's reviews
17 reviews
Press Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
The crucial decision in The Reader is made by a 24-year-old youth, who has information that might help a woman about to be sentenced to life in prison, but withholds it. He is ashamed to reveal his affair with this woman. By making this decision, he shifts the film's focus from the subject of German guilt about the Holocaust and turns it on the human race in general.
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Dominion Post (Linda Burgess)
5
As both an intellectual and emotional experience, this perfectly realised movie is one that will stay with me for a long time.
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Empire (UK)
3
The epitome of middle-brow 'quality' drama -- admirable within its limitations, but Bernard Schlink's Oprah Winfrey Book Club-approved book wasn't exactly literature, as this isn't exactly cinema.
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Hollywood Reporter
An engaging period drama. But German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject matter for the holiday season.
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Los Angeles Times
It is only, frankly, the strength of Winslet's performance that rises above conventional surroundings and makes The Reader the experience it should be.
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New York Times
The film is neither about the Holocaust nor about those Germans who grappled with its legacy: it's about making the audience feel good about a historical catastrophe that grows fainter with each new tasteful interpolation.
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NZ Herald (Peter Calder)
3
Bloodless adaptation of a good novel is almost rescued by Winslet at her best.
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Total Film (UK)
4
Pleasingly adult material powered by elegant, muscular performances. A strong adaptation of a slippery novel.
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TV3 (Kate Rodger)
5
A thought-provoking and incredibly rewarding five star watch.
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Variety (USA)
Stephen Daldry's film is sensitively realized and dramatically absorbing, but comes across as an essentially cerebral experience without gut impact.
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