Good movie but not great.

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2009)

When I watched the screener, alone at home with nothing but my own thoughts, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast paced the film started. It was sexy and intriguing. I did question Hanna (Kate Winslet) temperament at times but it worked for me.
Everything fell apart when Hanna skipped town on the mousy boy Michael. I bought into his love for her. That was clear. I just didn't accept her doggedness in keeping her illiteracy a secret. It was absurd. Of course, in real life, most people who can't read or write are ashamed and work at keeping it a secret. The absurdity of it all didn't surface until much later when a crisis presented itself.
When he started law school, he becomes this passive, washed out student who takes in 50 packs of cigarettes a day. That's all he did. Go to class, smoke his lungs to tar and kept his distance from fellow students. I accepted his new characterization. It reflected his feelings of hurt and distrust. But it did nothing for story. His passiveness put the story on hold, and me as well (Zzzz).
Then Hanna reenters his life as a perpetrator on trial for crimes against humanity when she worked as a S.S. guard at a Nazi death camp. "The Kid," aka Mr. Passive, happens to be present (contrivance) as a law student observing a real life trial, and what does he do? Nothing, this time rightfully so being that he's only there to observe. Then the crisis comes when her illiteracy could have actually saved her from a life sentence. However, she chooses to keep her shame to herself and take the blame for everything. She would rather go to prison for life than admit that she can't read or write.
Junior realized this and wanted to confront her, to save her from herself and to breath life back into his comatose role. But what does he do? Just take a wild guess. That's right. Nothing. He lets her rot, at which point I wanted to stop watching this film and let the screener rot.
Of course, I continued on reluctantly and I was pleased when the story left his uninteresting youth behind to show a man who was finally about something (working on his relationship with his daughter). The story even became touching as he reconnected with the aging Hanna who was on the verge of getting out of prison after 20 years. But the solid yet predictable ending wasn't enough to save this film from the depths of mediocrity.
"The Reader" isn't Best Picture material. The Academy fell for the old tricks of the Weinstein's aggressive campaigning once again.