... of a story very, very lenient about criminals against humanity (web)

Rating: 4/10 (5 October 2013)

My first impression was to be surprised about the opening credits: Germany in the 60s? What can be interesting to tell at this time?
Then, it was a poor love story: the couple only met to have sex or to read. Never we are told they appreciate each other for what they just are.
Next, it's the dreadful twist about the holocaust: now that we had time to grow feelings for Kate, we learn that she was a guard in Auschwitz and that she is persecuted. With that dirty trick, the story becomes then a sort of disturbing justification of her crimes, a hypocrite rewriting of history as Americans like it: The point of view argued here is that the Germans who worked in extermination camps weren't killers but just workers. Thus, the real evil was only the famous Austrian and his peers. As my favorite writer, PKD, wrote it and as I have already written for "Schindler's List", the first criminal in Holocaust is the German people: when you design gas, camps, when you build barracks, chambers, when you put in a train or drive it, select prisoners, when you lock people in a church, you participle in a crime. You can't hide behind work contract, orders, and threats because the humanity in you commands you then to disobey them all. I understand why the original book pleased so much to Germans who lived during WWII: it tells them they are innocent in spite of they have the bloodiest hands in the world. If not, if they aren't responsible, who is?
After this shameful argument, the movie reaches more interesting water when it speaks about illiteracy but it's too late and too little.
Finally, the movie closes on the traditional clichés of American people: the Jewish family is ultra wealthy and it seems totally inaccurate.
With 5 nominations for Oscars, I'm not finally surprised as I learned to understand that the Academy is pretty delirious in their choices (see for example, "a beautiful mind" for another rewriting of facts that has been awarded)!