The Reader (**)

Directed by: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross
Seen: March 29th 2009

** Out of ****

Kate Winslet won the Oscar for Best Actress and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Hanna Schmitz in this film. That should give you an indication of her involvement in it. She is not the lead of the film, that category, in my eyes, belongs to both David Cross and Ralph Fiennes, who play the role of Michael Berg, young and old.

Micheal Berg, on his way home from school one day, feels sick and ducks into an alleyway/building entrance, where he vomits from the sickness. A woman helps him out and gets him back home. At home, after denying that anything is wrong with him, he is diagnosed with Scarlet Fever, and spends 3 months in bed, suffering and recovering. When he is better again he goes to thank Hanna, but things cross a line, as the 36 year old Hanna seduces the 15 year old Michael after he helps her to carry charcoal to her small apartment. Initially it’s all about the sex, but it quickly changes once Michael starts reading literature he studies at school to Hanna, The Odyssey, Tintin and more. And soon enough he must read to her before they sleep together on any specific day. Every time Michael hands Hanna a book, she just puts it aside or hands it back to him to read to her.

When Hanna is offered a promotion to an office position from her work as a tram officer, she immediately leaves her home and disappears, leaving a broken Michael behind, as Michael used to skip parties his friends arranged (even his own birthday party) to visit Hanna, and suddenly, without a word, she is gone. A few years later Michael is studying law, and as one of the top six students, they attend the trial of six German women accused of a terrible war-crime. Hanna is amongst the defendants, and Michael’s past comes rushing back…

Kate Winslet is very good, as her awards would attest, but I find it strange that neither Kross, not Fiennes was acknowledged for this film. The Reader is a powerful film that includes the touchy subject of an affair between an older woman and a young boy, but quite a lot of the dialogue feels forced, as if the writer realised, now-and-again, that the drama is just coasting along without incident, and inserted conflict that seems to sprout out of nowhere. The film also feels overly long, with too much time spent on nearly every line of plot development. I am not recommending this film, as it is a harsh film to watch even should you be interested in this type of story, and with the forced and unnecessary way dialogue is handled, it could annoy some, especially if you are very attuned to how conversations unfold.