The Reader (2008)

I changed the top line below the blog name to describe myself as someone who loves movies. So many reviewers seem to get their kicks tearing movies to shreds. Don't they like them? They must be jaded. I'm not...yet.

I was looking forward more to the other Kate Winslet movie, but thought this was terrific (take that, Anthony Lane of The New Yorker, you hater, you. In the link The Wrestler is praised, Doubt is trashed, and spoilers abound). Stephen Daldry, director of Billy Elliott (2000) (loved it), The Hours (2002) (loved it more), and next year's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (loved the book) directed David Hare's adaptation (Hare also adapted The Hours from the excellent Michael Cunningham novel) of Bernard Schlink's engrossing adult-themed novel (no, I haven't read it) about a 15 year old boy who has an affair with a woman in her 30s. This isn't Kate Winslet's movie. In fact, her win last month from the Chicago Film Critics was for Supporting Actress and rightfully so. But she morphed into the no-nonsense Hanna; even when she was naked she was harsh and raw; when she was playing her own age (33) she looked plain, which for Winslet isn't easy, and as her character aged she had the body language down pat. I also liked the sensible shoes when she was wearing any. 18 year old David Kross, who played Michael at 15 and 25 was great, and Ralph Fiennes, playing the older Michael, lent his usual sensitivity (though you should check out his supporting role in the wonderful In Bruges from earlier this year--he's a maniac).

A little thing I appreciated about this: like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it was about Germans in Germany but was in English, with no German spoken whatsoever. The characters in Pajamas had fairly strong English accents. The characters in The Reader spoke with mild German accents and were easy for me to understand (unlike Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), a beautiful experience, but for the thick Asian accents by actors who were perfectly able to speak English intelligibly). Sad trivia about The Reader: it was to be directed by Anthony Minghella (1997 Oscar winner for The English Patient, nominated for the screenplay adaptation, also director of Truly Madly Deeply (1990) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)), and co-produced by Minghella and Sydney Pollack ('nuff said). Minghella died in March at 54 and Pollack in May at 74, so they are both listed among the 12 producers, but remembered in the closing credits. There was a lot more going on during production, too, such as waiting for Kross's 18th birthday before filming the sex scenes! After you see the movie, read this article.