Incredebly Balanced

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2009)

This is an amazingly believable film. The types of dilemmas faced by the characters are the kinds of things that easily could have happened. There's pride and anger and self doubt. This is really a story about a man who has been shaken loose from innocence, who must face the fact that someone he loved or thought he loved could have been a monster. Still, even if she was a monster, we cannot totally condemn her. Kate Winslet is incredible from the sexually driven streetcar conductor to the perpetrator of an event that killed hundreds of Jews. The amazing thing is that she can't get her mind around what she has done. She saw it as a way to find work since everyone was at war and she needed the employment. She is painfully honest which is hard to fathom for the courts. Roy Fiennes has a connection to her because of their affair, but he is still repulsed by the events. Because of his basic human kindness he continues to read to her as he did by recording books on audio tapes (he comes to realize that she can't read or write). There are not simple answers and no last minute discovery; it's about people trying to connect. This is a fine film.