Heart wrenching performance by Kate Winslet

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2017)

The story is based in post World War 2 Germany, shown inter-linked in three parts:
First part, where a teenage boy Michael Berg (David Kross) falls in LOVE with a young working girl Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winstel) who is double his age.
Second, where the boy Michael is a young graduate lawyer and is attending a court seminar where Hanna Schmitz is accused of being a complicit guard at a Nazi prison where 300 people are murdered.
Third, where Michael (Ralph Finess) a well established lawyer secretly supports Hanna's 20 year prison sentence and after release when she commits suicide, he fulfills her wish.
The first and third part are the most engrossing and entertaining where romance between these two protagonist brims every frame.
The main spine of the movie is Hanna's illiteracy that she is ashamed of.
During part one - Hanna insist that Michael reads out all story books and novels to her before having sex with her.
During part two - Hanna's secretive about her illiteracy during court proceedings lands her in a life-time sentence compared to her other co-guards who only get 2-3 years of jail sentence.
In part three - the part one romance of story reading is recreated again when Hanna is in prison - and Michael sends her audio tapes of all the books he had read to her. Through these tapes Hanna learns to read and writes to the extend that she can form a small sentence and send it to Michael. Those scenes are exceptionally executed with tenderness and LOVE. Even a three word sentence of Hanna written to Michael brings tears to our eyes.
Michael is shown torn between hating Nazi criminal and his romantic love interest - Hanna.
The last scene of Michael and Hanna meeting each other after almost 40 years face to face is extremely heart-breaking.
Without saying much Kate personifies her LOVE by screaming through her eyes, body language and hidden emotions that she wants to be with her LOVER Michael who is unwilling to help her beyond a point. This realization leads Hanna to commit suicide.
Hanna's character screams at us as audiences for empathy and sympathy and all credit to the master-class performance of Kate Winstel for it - incredibly portrays an Oscar winning role.
Apart from these two main characters - other roles are passe. The movie is adapted from the novel by the same name written by Bernhard Schlick who is himself a lawyer and author.
The Direction by Stephen Daldry is excellent.
A must watch
Overall my rating for the movie is 7.5 out of 10.