Kate Winslet great but movie slow

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2014)

It starts in 1995 with Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) as an older successful man. Then it flashes back to 1958 when Michael Berg (David Kross) encounters Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) for the first time. He's a sickly teenager who falls for the older woman. They have a secret love affair where he reads the classics to her. Hanna is given an office job and then she disappears one day. He grows up to be a cold and distant defense lawyer even to his own daughter. As a law student, he finds himself attending the trial of Hanna Schmitz as a Nazi SS guard at Auschwitz who locked 300 prisoners in a church which burns down.
The love affair is slow and at first, I figured this is a slow European story about a love affair. It does turn into much more. I would prefer the love story be trimmed a bit while some re-enactments of the war years could be added. It is a provocative examination of guilt and shame. It lays out the story but not give any easy answers. The performance of Kate Winslet is outstanding. The film definitely gives the audience plenty of time to ruminate on the issues. It probably gives too much time and space. It needs to pick up the pace and force a point of view on the audience. That's why a couple of scenes of the war years would be essential. Although director Stephen Daldry seems set on the unanswered question of the murky morality without the essential scenes.