Thought provoking!

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2010)

The Plot: A teenage boy finds himself in a (sexual) relation with an older woman. Part of their relation is based on the boy reading to the older woman. However one day the woman disappears, leaving the teenage boy heartbroken.
Several years later he finds her again as he witnesses (as a spectator) her trial where she is charged for war crimes.
As society passes moral judgement over the woman, so does he. Whether he is right or wrong in doing so is left to the viewer to decide, the movie merely shows us what happens given the choices the characters made.
The acting: Although I don't think anyone could've acted any better than Kate Winslet in this movie, speaking English with a German accent to portray Germans is very disappointing. However, the characters don't speak out every emotion they are experiencing (unlike most US of A movies) which challenges the viewer to think for themselves, is it love, fear, sense of duty, hate, misunderstanding, shame (and i could go on) that motivates the characters actions? Very difficult to pull off, but all actors pull this off magnificently. They force you to look at the complexities of a human being and (rightfully so) deny you the easy way out by simply putting people in 'good' or ' bad' categories and be done with it. (Note: see those reviews that think bad of this movie? Written by people who love doing this and find themselves confronted with their own shallow mind, better to disregard the movie then!)
To sum it up, a very nice thought provoking movie about morals and love. Definitely worth a watch!