Bizarre yet compelling drama on the banality of evil

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2008)

Kate Winslet's portrayal of Hanna Schmitz, a former Nazi death camp guard living in Berlin in 1958 and working as a trolley car conductor, is one of the strongest roles in her impressive acting career. Somehow she was able to create a character that the audience could feel some degree of empathy with, despite her having worked in Auschwitz, selecting prisoners for extermination. To her, it was just a job, like any other. She had no education (she was illiterate). She befriends a young high school student, Michael Berg, and they carry on an unlikely love affair. Before they made love, Hanna insisted that Michael read to her, thus the title. She weeps as Michael reads Homer and laughs to Mark Twain. A complex and fascinating character, she lived her life from day to day, with her past buried safely behind her. That is, until a death camp survivor published a book which included details about Hanna's past, resulting in a public trial and the sordid details of her past are retold in court.
The story is narrated by Michael Berg, as told through a series of flashbacks, beginning with when they first met in 1958. While Hanna Schmitz's character is played by Kate Winslet for the entire film, Michael Berg's character is played by 2 different actors, David Kross plays young Michael Berg and Ralph Fiennes as the adult. While Kate Winslet steals the show, the movie is putatively about Michael Berg. More's the pity, since his character is not all that appealing. As a callow youth and as an equally callow adult, he doesn't seem very engaging (as an adult, he is too busy to attend his father's funeral). This is the movie's biggest flaw. Kate Winslet is in a supporting role when she should be the main attraction.
The plot is complicated, and the heavy use of flashback narrative doesn't help things. The movie begins in the present, flashes back to 1958, into the 1960s, with a flashback within a flashback to 1944 (as re-told in the court proceedings), and then into the 70s, 80s, & 90s.
I would recommend this movie despite the plot simply to watch Kate Winslet's study in the banality of evil. It's one of the great and memorable performances of 2008.