What's in a movie title?

Rating: Null/10 (19 March 2009)

I'll start with a spoiler-filled synopsis presented in the simplest, plainest way. Bear in mind, those who don't know the story and have decided to read on despite the spoilers, that in the movie the story is told with deftness and style, as well as subtleties in abundance. The story, in chronological order (temporally scrambled in the movie), starts in 1958 Germany, when Michael, a 15-year old student, through a chance meeting, develops an affair with Hanna a streetcar conductor in her mid-thirties. While sexual attraction appears to be the key to their relationship, Michael is fascinated when Hanna asks him read to her various books, initially after their lovemaking and then almost as foreplay. While physically attractive, Hanna is down-to-earth, pragmatic and reveals little of herself. Young Michael does not notice her acute inferiority complex for her illiteracy, which she takes great pain to hide. (Remember that all these situations unfold only very gradually, throughout the entire movie). The affair ends after a few months when Hanna leaves town without saying goodbye after being offered a promotion to a desk job.
About a decade later in 1966, Michael, now a law student observing certain court proceeding as part of his course, is shocked to find Hanna, now 43, in the accused stand charged with Holocaust crime. This is when it dawns on Michael that Hanna is illiterate, which as it happens would be an effective defense to get a lighter charge. Because of her reluctance to reveal her "secret", she is convicted for murder with a life sentence. An agonized observer, Michael does nothing. He does schedule a prison visit but backs out in the last minute.
After another decade, now in 1976, Michael has a successful career but a failed marriage. Stumbling across an old book, he finds his feeling for Hanna rekindled and starts recording cassette tapes of his reading to send to Hana in prison. Initially shocked, Hana soon embraces this audio paradise. Then, using the tapes against the corresponding books she borrows, she starts to learn to write. She even tries this new mode of communication by writing him short notes. But while the tapes keep coming, he gives no written reply.
When Hanna is due to be released after serving 20 years of prison term, the matron calls Michael as her only contact, the only person who is able to help Hanna adapt to a new life. Material preparations (accommodation, community links etc) Michael effectively takes care of. But when he comes to see Hanna before her release, for the first time in some 30 years, he is aloof and distant. Although she doesn't show much, Hanna is devastated by her disappointment. She kills herself just before her release. This is not quite the end of the story but I'll come to that later.
The primary theme of the movie is the relationship between these two individuals and how her illiteracy comes into it. While there are hints and suggestion throughout, it will eventually be up to the audience to draw their own conclusion. More controversial is the Holocaust element which many agree is not the main theme. Still, there has been a lot of criticism that the movie tries to garner too much sympathy for Hanna. As the story goes, Hanna takes up the job of concentration camp security guard because with her illiteracy, she has little choice. She is charged with selecting prisoners each week to be killed but in her simple mind, because new prisoners continually arrive, some have to be sent away to make room. Again, the audience will form their own opinion.
It should be quite evident that this movie would be rich with painful and emotionally charged scenes, such as the aforementioned final meeting between Hanna and Michael. But one scene is so blissful and idyllic that it seems almost out of character with the rest of the movie, and that is when young Michael persuades Hanna, who evidently has know little happiness all her life, to take two days off to go with him on a bicycle tour.
One scene I particularly like is not even between Michael and Hanna. This is after Hanna's death, when Michael, following her last wish, looks up Ilana a survivor from that atrocity in the concentration camp. In a carefully preserved tea can is all the money Hanna possessed upon her death, which she wants Michael to give to Ilana. In Ilana's plush apartment, the miserable little roll of bank notes that is Hanna's life saving looks ridiculous. In an elegant and controlled exchange, Ilana and Michael engages in a fierce, subtle sparring. The outcome is a compromise. The money will go to a Jewish organization that promotes illiteracy while Ilana keeps the exquisite tea can  a sign of partial absolution for Hanna.
Kate Winslet deserves her Oscar (as well as best supporting Golden Globe, although it's a little perplexing that it should be supporting) playing Hanna over a span of 30 years. David Kross playing young Michael is impressive. Ralph Fiennes hasn't had his best life performance in this movie but it's a bit of a thankless role. One quite conspicuous flaw is seeing Michael in 1966 (mid-twenties) played by Floss and in 1976 (mid-thirties) by Fiennes. The transition in that 10-year gap is unconvincing but I'm not sure if much can be done. One marvelous performance that deserves recognition is Lena Olin playing Ilana in the scene mentioned before.