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After seeing The Reader becoming an Oscar Best Picture contender but probably the least favourite to win, my expectations were fairly high because I thought it had to be as good as Slumdog Millionaire and Milk. When I did see The Reader, I thought it was a good film but I was mildly disappointed because I don't really think that The Reader exactly made me feel any emotion for Michael Berg because I personally think that kind of character has been used too many times in a film where characters have just drooled over another one. One thing that every film must have is music but I think that there was a little too much particularly within the first 30 minutes of the film. Don't get me wrong it was well directed, written and produced but I wasn't really that fond of the story. I don't really get what the meaning of the tagline is: "Unlock the mystery." I knew that she was on trial for crime but the problem was I was predicting that there was a deeper mystery within the film that could have made a twist. Also, I was pretty disappointed with the ending of the film. It was a good film but I don't think it deserved a Best Picture nomination. It should have gone to in my opinion Revolutionary Road. Others might have included The Dark Knight, WALL-E, Doubt, Changeling and The Wrestler.
The acting in this film was the best thing about The Reader. Kate Winslet's performance as Hanna Schmitz was an oustanding one but I don't think she should have won the Oscar for that film. She should have won the Oscar for Revolutionary Road instead. I was going with Kate in my predictions for the Oscars before I even saw The Reader but out of the 5 nominees, Meryl Streep was the best. Kate delivers the best female leading performance of the year and of her career in Revolutionary Road. I liked her in that more than Meryl Streep. Since Titanic, Kate Winslet hasn't really shown any real nudity on-screen and realistic sex but in The Reader she becomes more crude than she has ever been. She appeared naked from the top quite regularly especially with the sex scenes in which there were quite a lot of. There aren't many actresses who are willing to expose nudity in a film and Kate Winslet is one of those rare actresses who don't let their naked body bother them while on-screen in front of directors, producers, cinematographers etc. It was rather strange regarding the awards for Kate because she won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in this film but won the Oscar and BAFTA for Best Leading Actress for this film. Well, it is a leading film but I think it was Kate Winslet vs. Kate Winslet because it was like a battle between her performance in The Reader and Revolutionary Road. I liked David Kross as young Michael Berg. He was very brave in this film because he appeared totally naked front and back in sex scenes and while Kate Winslet was naked as well. It was really good acting from both of them because Kate knew he was a man who is 15 years younger than her and Kross is 15 years younger than Kate. I think his acting in the love making scenes and the ways he was being with his family were really good but I couldn't feel very much sympathy or heartbreak within him because of Hanna. The great Ralph Fiennes gave me a better impression of the character and I felt sorry for Michael then because Ralph Fiennes is an actor who never disappoints and can draw real emotion as well as fear regarding other characters he has played in the past. He has been in 3 films in 2008 and he isn't in that many really. He was in In Bruges, The Duchess and The Reader and they were all awesome performances from him.
The directing from Stephen Daldry was good but I am not that fond of him as a director because I absolutely hated The Queen (apart from Helen Mirren's ace performance as our present queen and the disaster that struck Britain hard). He is an actor who tries to get us focused and deep into the character's personalities. In The Reader, I think that Daldry tries to give the audience impressions that they would grow really deep into the film itself and to make the characters lovable and deeply interesting. The script was good but I have seen better scripts. At first after reading the story, I thought it was an original script but after seeing and hearing that it's a novel, I then knew that it was an adapted script.
Overall, The Reader is a good film that in my opinion is rather flawed. My reasons are in my review. The Reader features another outstanding performance from Kate Winslet. The best leading actress performance of the year and of Kate's career is still Revolutionary Road. Out of the 5 Best Leading Actress Oscar nominees, Meryl Streep is the best even though I went for Kate Winslet before I saw the film and before the Oscar ceremony. Ralph Fiennes was good as always and now David Kross has become a force to be reckoned with because of his brave exposure of nudity and his young talent. His performance was good but not amazing. The Reader is a film that is good and disappointing that in my opinion didn't deserve the Best Picture nomination. It robbed it off Revolutionary Road. If not that film then should have been The Dark Knight, WALL-E, The Wrestler, Doubt or Changeling.
6/10
