the real message got lost in a poorly executed last third

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2013)

This movie was faultless for the first two thirds. It lost its focus at the end and it felt like the opportunity to finish as a masterpiece was lost.
Because of this, the most important message in the story seems to have passed most viewers by. It was being played out in the court scenes when we learn that (perhaps due to ignorance or lack of education) the prison guard was unable to recognize that it was more important to save lives instead of performing her job. Of course, this was not some sort of excuse being offered ... but what was unfolding before our eyes was that the (highly educated law student) kid was in that courtroom performing effectively the same crime.
By not speaking up when he should have, Michael Berg misjudged how to act as a human. His actions not just improperly sentenced Hanna Schmitz, but allowed some real criminals to go free. The irony in this situation was pure genius. Of course, the genius was in the book - the movie did a good job of bringing it to the non-readers.
We get to learn that the author of the original book believed the Holocaust was not just the fault of the Nazis .. rather the whole of the German people were to blame, perhaps a societal structure with an inherent inability to be moral or to assume responsibility for their actions. We see Hanna as a metaphor for the old Germany and Michael that of the new.
It was a real pity the movie floundered around in the last third or so, and diluted this, and other, powerful messages. Nonetheless, it is still a movie you must watch. What a shame it didn't quite hit the home run that it deserved.