An OK film with interesting aspects and good performances but lacking in the total delivery

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2009)

The Awards season always generates buzz and also means the sudden release of lots of worthy and good films all at about the same time. Of course this doesn't mean that all of them are good and just because some have hype for acting reasons does not mean that the film itself will be good, vice versa and so on. Coming to The Reader, the viewer already has pressure on them  the film is one of these contenders for awards, it has some heavy-weight performances and it is about a typically worthy subject in the Holocaust. The pressure to be overwhelmed and deeply moved by it is there for all to see  some say films will make heavy plays for Oscar but they do the same for the audience. The reality is not always so (both for the Oscars and for the audience). With The Reader the film is very much on the back of the actors and I left with the impression that that's all it had in its bag.
The story is a reasonably interesting twist on the Holocaust drama as it is seen in retrospect through a case convicting those who worked at the death camps, with a focus on Hanna. We meet her via the teenage Michael and for the majority of the film we know nothing more than her love of being read to and their sexual relationship. It offers the potential for exploration of guilt, of personal responsibility, of morality in the face of a mob mindset, of forgiveness  all of these are here to be had and the cast suggested that the script must really do this, hence their involvement. The thing is that the film doesn't manage to do this to any significant degree. The first half of the film spends far too long on the relationship between Michael and Hanna, because it has nowhere near enough to do with it and it ends up slightly dull as it goes along.
The second half is the guts of the film where secrets come out, things are confronted and issues are on the table for moral debate, whether within the characters or in the group of law students who seemingly exist to allow this debate to occur. Here is where my doubts over the film manifested themselves in proper, if slight, disappointment. The second half, you see, is interesting. That's it. Interesting. It is not challenging, it is not impacting, it is not moving and it is not thoughtful. I honestly no idea why it failed to really punch home on any of these because at times the concept and the characters make it feel like an open goal of sorts. It is a disappointment when all's said and done but thanks to the cast it does still engage to a point.
Everyone is good. Winslet gets the praise and rightly so as hers is a difficult and complex character. That she gets so much out of it when the material does want to explore her very much as part of the narrative is to her credit. Kross works alongside her very well, with a strong performance that matches her in so much as the material needs him to. Fiennes is a good future character and I liked what he did despite having the challenge of remoteness from the majority of the film and also little screen time. The problem is that everyone is good enough to make me yet again be bothered by how the script is not better so that they may have had more to work with.
The Reader is a big worthy film with big worthy names giving big worthy performances. Problem is that it doesn't do half as much as it should with the subject. The concept is fine and the cast deliver it with all they can but yet the material fails to deliver a really thoughtful piece full of debate and impact  the way it is set up suggests it was going to be all about this but instead it is only an OK film with interesting aspects and good performances but lacking in the total delivery.