An engrossing film with an amazing performance from Kate Winslet

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2013)

Okay, I'll admit it; Kate Winslet is my favorite actress of this generation. So, I might be a bit biased towards her, but I try not to be. Yes, she is incredibly beautiful, but she is also incredibly talented. She becomes the characters she portrays. I believed her as hopelessly romantic Marianne in "Sense and Sensibility", as insane Ophelia in "Hamlet", as quirky Clementine in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Now I believe her as cold yet passionate Hanna Schmitz, an older woman that has an affair with a much younger man while hiding dark secrets from him. Watching the film I believe Winslet is German, and I also believe she is capable of the crimes she is accused of in the film. She is sharp and cold in her encounters with other people, yet we still can sense warmth hidden inside. Winslet is absolutely brilliant in her portrayal and she finally won an Oscar for it. (She was nominated 5 times before her win, further proof of her abilities.) But I don't want to take away anything from the other actors. Ralph Fiennes is great as the older Michael, but it's David Kross that hold his own against Winslet. His portrayal of both the innocent and maturing Michael is truly great.
I've read some reviews that complain that this is just another Oscar baiting Holocaust movie. I'll agree that it does lack some of the emotional punch that other films had that year, perhaps this was something that was lost in the translation from the original book. But to discount this as just another Holocaust movie is not fair; it is a movie that poses complex questions about ourselves and about our secrets. We all have them and often we go out of our way to keep them. Do we hide them so that we can belong? Or do we hide them out of pure shame? In the film one character keeps a secret that hurts another, the other character keeps a secret that hurts them self. Why? And why did I care so much for someone that was so cruel? These are some interesting questions and the film left me wondering about human nature and why we do the things we do and feel the way we feel. I can always appreciate a film that makes me ponder such things.