A good second half

Rating: 7/10 (31 December 2008)

The first half of this movie, which focuses on the relationship between a young man (16 or so) and a middle-aged woman, is beautifully shot but pretty empty. It is as if the talent behind something like a Merchant-Ivory film (minus the script writer) had grabbed the first story that came to hand and filmed it just to keep busy. It's beautifully done, but apparently pointless.
Then, once the trial starts, the movie gets MUCH more interesting. Kate Winslet gives a truly first-rate performance as a very difficult character whom we only come to understand over time. This second half held me.
Yet, after it was over and I discussed it with the person with whom I had seen it, I found weaknesses as well as strengths. Michael, the young man who has an affair with Hanna, is studying law and guilt, but he really never has interesting things to say on Hanna's involvement. His conversations with his professor could have been much more interesting and better written.
In the same sense, Hanna's preoccupation with order and fear of chaos, which play so important a role in the second half of the film, could have been developed in the first half. As could have been her shame over her "deficiency."
Not the great movie some critics seem to be hailing it as, therefore, but still worth a viewing, especially for Winslet's truly impressive performance.