Powerhouse acting by Kate & Co.

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2008)

Kate Winslet shines in The Reader, adaptation of the 1995 novel by Bernhard Schlink, who attended and did a q&a at the recent preview I attended. I'm guessing Kate, adapter David Hare and perhaps co-star Ralph Fiennes will earn Oscar noms for this powerful film. Schlink indicated that Kate was his first choice for the role, and even name dropped that he was glad that Nicole Kidman was not chosen due to her pregnancy affecting the scheduling. I concur -Winslet is virtually perfect as the former concentration camp guard whose illiteracy is the key plot point in this dramatic examination of the issue (per Schlink) of reconciliation of the First Generation Germans (living through WW II) with the Second Generation (his), who grew up in the Fifties and were not made aware of the horrors and guilt of their parents until a decade or two later on. Not wanting to include spoilers that will lessen one's enjoyment of the picture, I will limit my descriptions of content, and instead forecast great things for David Kross, who has the movie's largest role as the young title character, falling in love with significantly older Kate and reading great novels to her before they have sex. Casting Kross (who turned 18 during the filming) in a part calling for a 15 year old was very helpful to avoid the usual Hollywood practice of casting much older actors unconvincingly in juvenile roles (generally due to fear of backlash from prudes a la that resulting from the recent Hounddog with Dakota Fanning or more obviously Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields). Fiennes plays the same role as a grownup, in scenes alternating between the two time periods: '50s/'60s and '80s/'90s. Lena Olin is also exceptional in a dual role as a Concentration Camp survivor and her daughter. My only fault with this film is easily dismissed: I wondered throughout why it wasn't made as a strictly German film, with German director, dialogue and actors a la the highly authentic recent hit Lives of Others or similarly structured Margarethe Von Trotta opus Rosenstrasse. But of course this was a big production aimed at a wider international audience, courtesy of the Weinstein brothers and the producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella (once scheduled to direct), the latter two having sadly passed away before the film was released: the film is dedicated to their memory.