Complex!

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2012)

The Reader is quite a complex movie. One can call it a romantic-drama but there are other complexities that make an interpretation of this work difficult.
At the heart of these complexities is the protagonist Hanna Schmitz played by Kate Winslet. She lives in her own world and own interpretations of things around her. She has a secret which she has managed to hide throughout her professional career. This secret affects a lot of things- including her romantic liaisons and her ignoring inhuman and dastardly ideologies and practices.
A few other undertones are also present. Notably, the fact the people get attracted to those who seem to have what they themselves cannot have. This possibly explains 36 year old Hanna's affair with the 15 year Michael, a student who can read! Although this decision, along with the other decisions she takes in her life, isn't the best one- the poor introverted lad remains pained for the rest of his life.
Perhaps that is what this fast paced and nicely edited movie intends to convey- that while this character is indeed flawed; but so are life's most general characters. This possibly explains the collective madness people in different times and different places seem to go through. Although such characters may not deserve sympathy per se, they still deserve it simply by virtue of their being human beings. Milgram experiment and 'Banality of Evil' also point in the same direction.
And for the actors, it is actually the 18 year old David Kross, playing Kate Winslet's young lover Michael Berg, who steals the show and impresses one the most. Incidentally, Kross looks a cross between Keaneu Reeves and Heath Ledger. As for Kate Winslet, I'm not sure what the various judges saw in her performance(pun intended!) to hand over so many awards! I saw the move only once- may be I missed something...