Oscar winning Winslett on form (The Reader (DVD))

Member Name: flodombey

Product:	The Reader (DVD)
Date:	18/05/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, engaging, great story

Disadvantages: Long

The Reader is a film I was really looking forward to watching because I wanted to know what Kate Winslett did which earned her the oscar over Angeline Jolie for Changeling. I had already been mighty impressed with Jolie in that film (see my review) and so my thinking was that Winslett must have been pretty darn good in this. I was not wrong.

This film is very clever, engaging and quite dark, the subject matter is not easy but it is well worthy of your time and attention. The way it handles such subjects with tact and grace is impressive and it is actually a very rewarding film to watch.

Plot
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The movie switches between 1950's Neustadt and 1990's Berlin and we see the same character, Michael Berg as both a teenage boy (played by David Kross) and as an adult (Ralph Fiennes). As a teenager he embarks on a rather inappropriate affair with a woman in her 30's, the age difference is some 21 years, he is 15 and she is 36. The woman in question is Hanna Schmitz (played by Winslett).

Through the course of their affair Michael reads many novels to her because she is fond of hearing him read from the classics, Homer, Checkov and notably Mark Twain are among the books he brings and reads to her. It becomes apparent that she herself is illiterate and this is why she loves to hear him read so much.

One day Hanna ups and leaves the town after being offered a promotion in her job on the trams (it seems her literacy problems would be revealed if she took this job and evidently it is a source of great shame to her that she cannot read or write). Michael is left abandoned by the woman he has become so enamoured with and turns his attention to his studies.

Some years later while at law school, Michael is taken to a trial in order to experience court life and to his horror he sees that one of the 6 ex-SS guards on trial is none other than Hanna Schmitz. The film follows his feelings, the subsequent ending of the trial and her associated traumas and further unravels his life then and now. There are some heartbreaking twists along the way.


Cast
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Hanna Schmitz - Kate Winslett
Young Michael Berg - David Kross
Adult Michael Berg - Ralph Fiennes
Professor Rohl - Bruno Ganz
Rose Mather - Lena Olin
Julia Berg - Hannah Herzsprung

To be honest, 90% of the film centres on Hanna and the young/older Michael, the other parts are barely significant to the core of this film.


The Good
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Winslett really does turn in a stellar performance here in my opinion. It is weird to see her in such a cold and hard role, emotionally inept and insular - but she does it in such a way that you like her in spite of yourself. It also has to be said that the ageing make up they have used is extraordinarily good and its easy to believe that the 66 year old version of Hanna we meet in the latter part of the film is genuinely her.

David Kross as the younger Michael is also very well played and testament to this young actor. Not an easy role and touching on the uncomfotable subject matter of his teenage relationship with Hanna, there is a fair amount of nudity which this role has to deal with too. He is touchingly believable as the naive young boy who falls head over heels for the aloof and distant Hanna and learns about relationships in the hardest possible way when she suddenly disappears.

The use of then and now scenes really works so smoothly in this film that you stop noticing the 'joins' and just go with it. There are heartbreaking moments when you desperately want to shout out for both the main characters. There are some fleeting glimpses of the happieness which they could have had and some awful narratives about the horrors of World War 2 for the Jews who found themselves in concentration camps.

At its core this is a tale of how one boy grows and changes - mentally, physically and morally, in direct relation to his experiences with one woman who, as the survivor of the camps Hanna guarded states at the end of the film 'had a remarkable effect' on him.


The Bad
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To my mind there was no identifiably bad thing about this film. It is, if anything, quite long at 124 mins and could have maybe been as effective in less time.

My only other slight issue was that the relationship between Michael and his adult daughter is never particularly investigated, I liked the fact, however, that at the end of the film you believe that he is about to share the remarkable story we have just seen with her.


Overall
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An emotive, well thought out movie. I for one am very glad that Winslett landed this role when Nicole Kidman dropped out due to her pregnancy. Personally I have no doubt that Kidman could not have pulled off this intricate and weighty role with anywhere near as much skill as Winslett did.

Wonderfully pieced together by director Stephen Daldry, this film is easy to watch despite its sometimes dark subject matter and is particularly engaging to the viewer. It is such a shame that the two producers, Anthony Mingella and Sydney Pollack both passed away before it was released and did not get to see the success this film became and how it was recognised.

A great, enjoyable film with a truly interesting and well structured story behind it, one I will definitely be buying for my collection.

Summary: A great film dealing with some difficult issues with tact and aplomb