A passionate and steamy love affair that last in memory even when times of guilt and the arrival of truth is discovered.

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2009)

"The Reader" is without a doubt an emotional love story that spans thru time and memory as it shows how it can affect and shape the life of one young man. This type of film may not be everyone's cup of tea, yet I for one found it's themes of love, along with the hot and sexy steamy love making scenes, rounding out with the trial after war time that arrives at painful guilt and truth discovery to be compelling and interesting, as "The Reader" is just the type of film to draw the complete attention of a viewer. To add to that the performance of Kate Winslet the lead lady of the film is portrayed to perfection as her role of an older lady who's clearly a seducer is a real treasure to watch.
"The Reader" which was based on a novel is set in postwar Germany and it chronicles the life of one Michael Berg(Ralph Finnes)from the tender age of 15 till his life up in the mid 1990's. Starting with Michael being ill he meets Hanna Schmitz(Kate Winslet)one day as after Michael is helped home and upon his recovery he again journeys back to see Hanna. Yet he will discover that Hanna is twice his age, yet despite his tender age of 15 Michael is drawn into a very hot and steamy passionate love affair with her(I must say the love scenes were well done and Kate shows plenty of skin). Michael being a schoolboy and Hanna who works as a train ticket conductor keep their physical romance a secret, yet Michael discovers Hanna has one passion and that is she loves for him to read stories and poetry to her(Oddly enough Hanna herself is illiterate)and this skillful fun only deepens their passion for one another. Then the film shifts one day as Hanna leaves causing Michael to be heartbroken.
Eight years later while Michael is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he will make a surprising discovery as sitting in the courtroom back in his life is Hanna who's on trial as a defendant for war crimes. Hanna does not defend herself even though she feels she done nothing wrong you as the viewer really wonder about it if she feels any guilt or not. As it goes on Michael's feelings of the past become more and more intense as memories of love and passion never die even in hard and harsh times of guilt and regret.
Really this film was well directed and paced by Stephen Daldry as it really is a haunting epic about how even the truth and guilt intersects with love proving memories can stand time from generation to generation even though it's impacted by war crimes. Overall "The Reader" is clearly a watch in my opinion for the messages and themes it sends out like love, passion, coming of age, regret, and most of all proving that everyone has memories and that nothing can stop anyone from remembering good times like passionate love even though it didn't last. Also with the performance from Kate Winslet the film is even much more memorable for her bold and brave performance as her characters risk taking style was one to be remembered.