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Reviews of The Reader
The Reader review
Posted : 4 months ago on 10 August 2009 12:05
(A review of The Reader)I just watched and I still can't figure it out everything the movie wanted me to understand. It is a really sad, touching, beautiful, melancholic movie. Kate Winslet is amazing as Hanna and Ralph/David were just as good as David. It is a sad love story where a series of events never let this couple, that probably wouldn't work out, together for more than one summer. How time can make it a lot of things pass but some are impossible not to remember. One of the best movies I saw this year so far.
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Overt Oscar bait
Posted : 7 months ago on 18 May 2009 02:21
(A review of The Reader)"I can't live without you. The thought of leaving you kills me. Do you love me?"
The Reader is one of those motion pictures which feels specifically tailored for a December release. An adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's 1995 international bestseller, this is a mature historical drama laced with nudity, compelling themes, suppressed emotion and a few twists. It's quite telling that producer Harvey Weinstein rushed the film's production to ensure its place in the 2008 Oscar race. At any other time of the year, such a movie would frankly feel out of place. Directed by Stephen Daldry (his first feature since 2002's The Hours), The Reader is blatant Oscar bait, but the makers' overconfidence in their product is palpable from the outset...and the result is closer to a near miss than a rousing success. While Daldry's Oscar-nominated film is brimming with emotion and provocative moral ambiguity in the context of a melodrama, The Reader is an unrelenting journey into dreariness and one-note drama with thinly-drawn characters. This is strictly by-the-numbers, conventional Oscar bait which quickly descends into abject boredom. Not skilful enough to be genuinely engaging, and truly lacking in substance, this is a cold fish of a film which falls short of the greatness for which it strives. It's even strangely detached from emotion when it should've been brimming with poignancy. The Reader is not a particularly bad movie per se...it's just an average, boring one. It's frankly bewildering that this film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The mainstay of the story begins in Germany in 1958, when 15 year old Michael Berg (Kross) falls ill on the street and is comforted by a stranger named Hanna (Winslet). Months later, after he overcomes his grave sickness, Michael returns to thank Hanna for her kindness. But the young man finds himself attracted to this older woman who willingly beds the overeager virgin. This brief, sensual, passionate affair combines sex with foreplay during which Michael reads passages of literature to Hanna. It is throughout this section that the film alternates between chapters and sex, sex and chapters. This leads to the inevitable heartbreak when, despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears. Eight years later, and Michael is a student at law school. Through a coincidence barely allowable in a movie like this, his law class is given the chance to witness a Nazi war crimes trial...and Hanna is one of the defendants. Michael figures out a secret which would exonerate his former lover, but is too embarrassed to share it. The story unnecessarily stretches into Michael's adulthood (now played by Ralph Fiennes) when he has become a man plagued by relentless regret and shame.
The Reader is notable for its first-rate performances, the handsome photography, and the elegant music. The preceding praise may sound generic, but so is the movie. Production values are admirable, and everything is brilliantly subdued, but nothing pierces, shocks, engages or challenges. The interesting undertones and themes are occasionally compelling, but for the most part everything interesting dissolves into disconcerting blandness.
If there was any real passion or feeling behind it, The Reader might've felt like more than a mere space-filler on the inexorable march towards Oscar night. Despite the best efforts of the three talented main actors and a competent director, The Reader just lies on the screen demanding the audience to care and engage but never offering them much to grasp onto. Daldry also appears to have a difficult time with the film's tonal shifts. The director makes a peculiar choice to paint Michael's raw sexual awakening on a dull palette of bleached, muted colours. Regardless of all the nudity and constant love-making, The Reader is about as sexy as a brick wall. The tone additionally contradicts Kross' openhearted, wholly amorous performance as the smitten teenager. The picture is also structured in a pointlessly choppy and non-linear fashion, losing momentum and focus once the proceedings move beyond the trial. The segments taking place in the '90s lack the foundation of the preceding chapters. A viewer can understand that as an adult, Michael is still obsessed with Hanna, and his obsession isn't healthy, but that's virtually everything we manage to glean from about 40 minutes worth of film. Ralph Fiennes is a fine actor (who also starred in 2008's In Bruges and The Duchess), but his portion of the film is let down by the screenplay.
Reportedly, The Reader is a predominantly faithful adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's book when it comes to major plot points (and it gets points for it), but the devil is in the details. Intricacies and nuances that exist in the novel and which can be presented in the first-person narrative are absent from this more straightforward motion picture.
The first two thirds of The Reader are by far the strongest. These scenes (which chronicle the affair and the impact the revelations about Hanna's past have upon Michael), provide rich drama and pose some troubling philosophical questions, even if Daldry grossly mishandles the material (why he was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for this film is a mystery for the ages). It has to be said that the slow pace of the film also allows an audience to realise the gaping plot holes. (An illiterate person able to work as a ticket checker on a tram?)
As stated previously, producer Harvey Weinstein forced director Daldry to rush the production. At times, this intensified schedule shows in the finished product. A lot of the dramatic transitions aren't as tightly focused as they should be. The giant leaps between timelines are baffling, particularly the initial transition from 1995 to 1958. Character motivations are seldom explored in David Hare's shallow script (also curiously nominated for an Oscar). The characters are therefore presented merely as two-dimensional caricatures. Hanna is just a horny male's fantasy, while Michael is merely a horny teenager. Both of the aforementioned choose to withhold crucial information in fear of embarrassment. As we can't understand the motivations of the characters, we don't understand why Hanna chooses to face a lifetime in prison when a simple piece of humiliating information could soften her sentence. Crucially, we don't care either. A suicide also happens towards the film's dénouement, but why this character chooses to take their life is unknown. Most of these faults are due to the film's faithfulness to its source material, but this doesn't excuse them.
What does work is the stunning cinematography by Roger Deakins and Chris Menges (the latter coming onto the feature after the production schedule was changed by the producer and the former suddenly dropped out due to scheduling conflicts). The cinematographers were nominated for an Academy Award for their great work.
Both Kate Winslet and David Kross commit unequivocally to their roles. Winslet plays the character of Hanna throughout the entire movie; going through a gauntlet of old age make-up in the process. Winslet's Oscar-winning portrayal of Hanna is note-perfect, but she's unable to overcome the thinly-sketched nature of her character - the actress is adrift with no coherent character to grab onto. Kross and Ralph Fiennes are engaging enough, but the character of Michael Berg isn't much more interesting than Hanna; the transition from callow youth to guilt-ridden man never made clear.
In a supporting role, Bruno Ganz is authoritative as the law professor who poses pertinent questions to Michael about the human condition. Hannah Hertzsprung is also marvellous in the small but pivotal role of adult Michael's daughter. The acting across the board is great, but the contrivance inherent in playing this German tale in English for an international audience detracts from its authenticity. It isn't as affecting as, say, The Lives of Others or Downfall.
The weakest addition to the 2008 Oscar race, The Reader is a plodding, meandering drama plagued by a glacially slow, shallow screenplay. Still, there's enough intelligent material here to make it worthwhile as a meditation about the post-World War II implications of the Holocaust upon the German psyche. It also works as a tale of the tragedy suffered by one man because, at a young, vulnerable stage time of his life, he fell in love with the wrong person. While never making excuses for those who committed atrocities in the Holocaust, The Reader becomes the latest Nazi-related feature to question whether redemption is a possibility for a person responsible for monstrous acts. The stylish cinematography, coupled with Nico Muhly's florid, somewhat overbearing score makes this motion picture seem like the type of movie one ought to take seriously. Don't be fooled by the elegant exterior, though, as The Reader never fulfils its promises of relevance and depth. R.I.P. Anthony Mingella and Sydney Pollack.
6.2/10
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The Reader review
Posted : 9 months, 3 weeks ago on 24 February 2009 12:35
(A review of The Reader)Possibly the best of the five movies Oscar nominated for Best Movie in 2008. Leaves you with conflicting emotions for the protagonist played by Kate Winslet (who puts in a stellar performance), who was a Nazi prison guard in a Jewish concentration camp. The movie falls short of perfection in the home stretch. I felt like the film-makers were soft-pedalling the horror of the Holocaust, even if their intention was to put a human face on Winslet's character. Still, any movie that makes me think is worth it's weight in gold.
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Amor didático
Posted : 10 months ago on 12 February 2009 08:23
(A review of The Reader)"O Leitor", mesmo tendo um forte contexto histórico (pós 2ª Guerra Mundial), se propõe a falar de sentimentos. Narra a história de um garoto, Michael Berg, que se apaixona por uma mulher, Hanna Schmitz, já com o dobro de sua idade e que mantém um caso com esta. Com o passar do tempo, ele lê livros para ela (por isso "O Leitor). Anos mais tarde, já há tempos sem vê-la, o garoto, já universitário em Direito, reencontra-a no banco do réu.
David Kross, como o garoto, e Kate Winslet, como a mulher, formam um casal com perfeita compatibilidade em cena. Este primeiro se revela como um competente ator que se completa com o talento já reconhecido de Kate Winlet. Winslet também merece mérito por sua sensível e emocionante atuação. Quando em cena, as câmeras se rendem à sua beleza ofuscante e deixam que ela reine. E como reina.
Os aspectos ténicnos são grandes atrativos. A trilha sonora que embala "O Leitor" é de extrema importância para compor cenas que tocam o coração dos mais chorões, como minha amiga que chorou ao meu lado na metade da sessão. A direção de arte se faz presente e ambienta com exelência até as cenas dos anos mais recentes, o que de fato surpreende.
Stephen Daldry que já dirigiu os inesquecíveis "As Horas" e "Billy Elliot" é o ingrediente principal desta trama. Isso porque ele sabe manipular os acontecimentos e, além do mais, o conjunto técnico, como já diz o nome, é técnica. E o que importa mesmo é se o filme comove, funciona. E mais uma vez, Daldry prova que sabe fazer isso muito bem. Pois "O Leitor" não perde seu clima, tendo em vista que o espectador tende a ficar mais atento à história até o desfecho final.
O que faz deste longa pior que "As Horas e "Billy Eliott" são os momentos finais. Depois da morte de Hanna Schmitz, o filme entrega cenas vagas que culminam num final insatisfatório. Contudo, isto não faz deste um filme ruin. Ao contrário, "O Leitor" é uma obra linda de ver e difícil de esquecer.
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A successful historical adapt of sorts.
Posted : 10 months ago on 11 February 2009 01:06
(A review of The Reader)''I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you ended it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.''
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Ralph Fiennes: Michael Berg
The Reader is one of those diverse films and stories that has the eccentric audacity to be both moving, emotional, historical yet also focusing on aspects such as relationships, justice and forms of love. With an astounding cast of formidable weight, a script that echoes measures and doses of genius, and locations fitting of a Post-War Germany, The Reader succeeds in being a successful insight into a faceted range of characters. Especially the main two, Hannah Schmitz and Michael Berg, both with completely different personas and a bonding unseen by many, but coming across as rare and tranquil. We have the unlikely bond that presents itself between them in an unusual series of events which brings the pair together, we have the age gap the two have arise, and a love sparked about by a chance encounter. From here The Reader begins in giving us an unusual romance yet proceeds in giving us a story which is in fact deeper and tragic all at the same time.
The story cleverly switches between past and present, in carefully stitched sequences which ultimately tell the tale of the two characters. Hannah is the lonely woman who takes into her affection and confidence the innocent and clever Michael, yet shows a hidden past and secrets which are present, the more you scratch past the surface.
We have an evolution of a relationship, and The Reader contains a series of sexual scenes and naked displays. In spite of any prudish audiences whom may have the pleasure of viewing this, the scenes are modest, beautiful and soaked with the joys of blossoming love.
Kate Winslet as Hannah, gives us an Oscar worthy performance, which now it becomes clear why such a versatile Actress is beginning to get recognition for her abilities. In The Reader Kate not only gives a perfectly delivered accent and speaks with energetic strides of submerging talent, it's her acting with her eyes, her motions and her flawless expressions of awe inspiring deliverance which comes off effortlessly. I still need to see the totally different Revolutionary Road, but The Reader has assured me Winslet is finally going to maintain some of the recognition she deserves.
Her chemistry with David Kross playing the Young Michael Berg, is successfully believable. David Kross appears in his best role and film yet, giving us a Law Student with emotional strains of empathy yet effortlessly telepathically even, manages to make us feel like he feels, he manages to capture the anguish present in the character of Michael. As he begins to read to Hannah stories of intrigue and imagination, we find this relationship isn't just restricted to mindless sex but a deeper constrained bond of love and companionship. This is all heavenly and bold, but obviously we also begin to realise good things don't usually last. as the film progresses loss and tragedy present and rear their heads.
Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg, shows my favourite Actor in action, and he doesn't disappoint. Ralph excels and soars with the portrayal of a grown up Micheal, whom we also see a performance that exceeds mere words, and emotional expressions which impact the hurt and journey of one man's burden and struggle with his souls secrets and unresolved meanderings. When Ralph begins to become teary eyed we are too, because we've felt the journey with him, we've been every step of the way with this deep individual, we've seen the loss and love he's been endowed with.
Other appearances I feel obligated to mention would be the exceptional Bruno Ganz as a lecturer and an upcoming new actress Karoline Herfurth whom I've seen before in a smaller role of Perfume.
The Reader is one of those films which has the unfortunate premise of being underrated and undervalued by many viewers, due to the fact it's not necessarily mainstream fodder. I'd highly recommend this film, The Reader is a vision of the past and yet a timeless account of a relationship, a bond, and a tragic trial of a woman whom made up for her mistakes. When we find she was previously a Nazi, an SS member, it's not the plain truth being found out, it's the reasons and redeeming qualities that make up for her misdeeds in the past. Ultimately what happens is tragic, it is a cruelly life portrayed, yet it's suffering and beauty echoes far into boundless leaps of eternities embrace.
Michael recording tapes and reading for her, while she is in prison seems to give her a glimmer of hope and something to live for. The Reader should definitely be watched by everyone who appreciates a powerful albeit saddening story of two soul-mates. The fact is The Reader has it's moments of humour and happiness, and like life it's the journey and experience which indeed counts.
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