daring, thought-provoking, sublime

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 2009)

The Reader is a very ambitious and daring movie, in that it risks being misunderstood, mainly by those who believe solved all the questions concerning the Shoah and can see clearly where guilt and responsibility lie. The movie, like the book, shifts the attention from the universal, great history to a personal, small history, trying to pose further questions, to look at things from a different perspective, but never falling into the temptation to justify or blame anyone or anything. The horror of what the Shoa was is out of doubt, is something the viewer has always in mind, and, given the due proportions between collective and individual tragedy, it just gives voice to those people who became, more or less unconsciously, the instruments of Nazi Germany, people whose consciences were totally destroyed and replaced by an absolute duty to obedience, fundamental to the success of that dreadful system. I would define the movie as sublime, in the romantic sense of the word, in its tension towards a possible definite comprehension of reality, even though no final and absolute truth is to be found. The movie moves gently but inexorably into the harsh story of Hanna, superbly interpreted by an outstanding Kate Winslet, one of the most talented actresses of today, capable of conveying a strange but touching sense of emptiness, sadness and at the same time a passionate longing for life. Her love story with the young boy is experienced with passion but also sadness and pain, the only moments in which she feels authentically human is when she is read the classics, which can lead her into the lives of fictitious characters, but full of pure emotion. Less convincing Fiennes' interpretation, who seems (maybe only apparently), a little detached from those events which should have left a time-resistant mark in his soul. The only flaw is the choice to use the English language, both for the books and for the letters between Hanna and Michael. I think it's quite misleading, since the question of the language is highly significant, in that is strictly connected with the sense of belonging to and identifying with a country and its history. This flaw does not prevent the movie from standing out as milestone within the cinematography urging thought and elaboration of the sense of individual, besides collective guilt, under Nazi Germany.