emotionally engaging, impressively thoughtful but very sad‏

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2009)

Winslet is really Oscar-worthy in this powerful adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's novel. Ralph Fiennes is also perfect but Kate is more than terrific, her performance showing passion passion and a sad emptiness at the same time, playing a woman never able to understand the consequences of her actions. The subject handled is very sensitive but screenwriter and director Stephen Daldry have done a perfect job dealing with it in an engrossing way. The story is for the most part fluid and for the whole part elegant and superbly crafted. An adaptation of book boosted by Winslet's central and very difficult role. This season has seen several stories set under The Third Reich (Valkyrie, Defiance for instance) but this one is surely the most provocative, thought provoking and surely the most meaningful. The Reader is thoughtful, absorbing and packed with delicate twists as well as with impressive sequences.