Illiteracy

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2011)

This movie was about Illiteracy. Sure it is intermixed with romance and love but its main theme (in my opinion) is the title: reading... and not being able to thus not being able to write.... not even the word the.
It is a dark world in a modern society. It goes beyond just not knowing how to read or write but ones own self esteem, understanding of things and how they 'read' the world.
Hanna was in some ways a young child doing what she was told to do. Did you not see her puzzlement in the court room when asked why she did not let the prisoners out of the church. And what does she do when asked to show her handwriting. She shuts down.
Michael could have stopped her jail term and death and this is where this movie fails as justice often fails. The courts could have made her sign her name or the lawyer should have known she could not read or write.
I cried deeply for Hanna because she is like so many in society that are forgotten. She had her life battle scars but no one really cared not even Michael. That is why many people commit suicide; they are forgotten or not understood.
People read to her all her life. They opened up a world to her that readers take for granted. The women who accused her of writing knew she could not write and to save their own skin they used her.
Winslets performance was superb and saved this movie.