The Reader and His First Love, written and portrayed by a group of marvelous team!

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2009)

Chapter 1 - It was Berlin, 1958. A young, totally drenched Michael Berg (David Cross) left the bus and falls sick on the basement, at the block of apartments where he lives. Saw him feeling sick and in pain, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) brings him home.
Chapter 2 - Few weeks later, a fully recovered Michael brought some flowers to thank Hanna for her help, and passion develops. From then onwards, Michael runs to Hanna's apartment for physical intimacy every time he had an opportunity.
Chapter 3 - Each time Michael meets Hanna, he would read her a book. From The Odyssey by Homer, D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, to Anton Chehkov's The Lady and the Little Dog and Tintin the comic, Hanna widens her knowledge, and develops an interest with Michael and his reading session. But when the large age gap and the differences in viewing an issue, they were torn apart, and Hanna left the apartment, starting a new life.
Chapter 4 - 8 years have passed. Michael, now a law student, attended a court hearing session on the trial of the Germans who had assisted in the massacre of the Jews during World War 2. To his surprised, he saw his long lost Hanna, now sitting together with a group of ladies, who were put on trial. What will Michael do? Based on Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser, The Reader is a American big screen translation of Schlink's novel on the search of true love and uncovering the truth. All told in a life span of 38 years (where the story begins from 1958 and ends at 1995), director Stephen Daldry enlivens the novel, through the smooth flow of the past to the present. With an excellent performance of Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and David Cross, The Reader has live up to it's name of being a Oscar nominee for 5 awards, including Best Picture.
Here, we are seeing how Michael, now a lawyer, is trying to help a illiterate Hanna to discover the wonder of books, and how it helps her to explore the outer world, rather than surrounding her life working as a dull and boring bus ticket conductor job. As a kid, his curiosity of exploring the opposite sex has driven him into a physical relationship with a lady who is 20 years older than him.
To show the audience how Hanna explores the world of books and getting in touch with the world of reading and writing, Daldry presents to us a 30 something Hanna wanting to quench the thirst of literature through her almost daily physical intimacy with Michael, and starting to write at an old age, where the novels were read and recorded in cassette tapes. This is the important point where Hanna has found the meaning of her life towards her feelings for Michael.
While Ralph Fiennes delivers a superb performance as adult Michael Berg, it was Kate Winslet and David Cross who has graped the heart of the audience. Kate Winslet portrays Hanna, where from young to old, she was looking for something to clear her conscience. David Cross as young Michael Berg, was seeking remedies to retain his first love and finding the truth on Hanna's decision. Fiennes's appearance as a adult Michael Berg was more on preserving the first relationship with Hanna.
Not to mention that The Reader were produced by the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, which both passed away before The Reader was completed. Of course, this makes The Reader a highly recommended drama to catch it on the big screen.
The Reader was there for you to find out the truth, and to explore the world of the famous authors, who brought us classic literatures which no one would easily forget.