Kate Winslet At Her Finest

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2011)

The Reader is a film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink.It stars Kate Winslet,at her finest role to date, together with Ralph Fiennes and Michael Kross.It was written by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry.The movie serves as the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, who both died before it was released.
The story is a haunting period drama concerning the relationship between a 15-year-old German boy and a mysterious woman twice his age, and the way that it grows doubly complex when the man re-encounters the woman years later and discovers a shocking truth about her past.
The film opens on the character of Michael Berg in middle age -- cold, remote, and emotionally withdrawn.Then it moves back in time to 1950s Berlin, where ailing teenager Michael has fallen ill with fever, and is discovered in the street by Hanna, a woman in her thirties. After Michael recovers, the two immediately lapse into a torrid affair and Michael falls prey to the confusion of his own burgeoning sexuality. Their liaisons are often marked by Hanna's request that Michael read to her. Later, when Michael returns to Hanna's flat and finds it deserted, her absence becomes an emotional blow for which he is completely unprepared, and indeed, scarred for life.
The film then moves forward in time by eight years. Michael,who is now a law student,walks into a courtroom and comes across Hanna,one of a series of Nazi prison guards being tried for murderous war crimes during World War II. As he watches her on the witness stand, memories of their past experiences together bring him to the point of realization concerning a startling, long-buried truth about Hanna and Michael knows that if he divulges this information, it could modify the prison sentence handed out and dramatically alter her fate.
The performances of the actors were highly commendable.Kate Winslet's portrayal of the illiterate and complex Hanna was just beyond description.It was definitely the finest performance of her career.Winning the Oscar Best Actress award was definitely well- deserved.The other actors/actresses were also great as well.
As for the story,it was a holocaust movie with a deep,twisting dive into a dense tangle of thorny moral,ethical,situational and emotional issues.Aside from that,it also touches on underage desire that converges with perverse passions. Overall,it is one excellent and outstanding movie.