Weak script, strong acting

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2019)

If you're a fan of Kate Winslet and want to watch the film that won her her Oscar, and you're old enough to handle some very uncomfortable sex scenes, go out and rent The Reader. If you're not old enough, or you prefer well-acted movies where everyone keeps his and her clothes on, rent Labor Day instead for a great Kate Winslet performance.
David Kross stars as a fifteen-year-old boy in post-war Germany who enters into a relationship with the much older, mysterious Kate Winslet after a chance encounter. While it's very clear that David's interest is solely the interest of any hormone-raging teenager who gets within a three-foot radius of any woman, it never explains Kate's interest. On a physical level, why is she attracted to someone who, five years earlier, was in grade school? On an emotional level, why does she want to permanently damage a young boy's mind and future relationships? In their meet-cute, she helps walk him home after he's ill on the street. Leading up to their first explicit encounter, he helps her with a chore and gets his face dirty; she insists he take off all his clothes and have a bath. The set-up makes no sense, and if you're looking at the film through a lens concerned with child abuse, Kate is clearly guilty.
A good portion of the movie details Kate and David's sexual relationship, but as the film starts with Ralph Fiennes reflecting on his youth, the audience is left to hope there's a little more to the story. The plot does progress, and if you look up the film online you'll find out what happens in the first sentence of description. If you want to be surprised, just rent the movie without knowing anything about it.
While the performances of the lead actors are very good, the script is surprisingly weak. There's a shocking lack of character development than not only leaves the audiences wondering why they made their choices, but makes the main points of the plot unbelievable. I can only imagine Kate Winslet working through her script, exclaiming, "She does what? But why?" with no one to help her. Given what she had to work with, she did a very good job.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic nudity, graphic sex scenes, and uncomfortable scenes involving a young boy, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.