The Reader
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Directed by: Stephen Daldry
Starring:
Ralph Fiennes - Michael Berg
Kate Winslet - Hanna Schmitz
David Kross - Young Michael Berg
How do the people of Germany reconcile their past? All civilizations have their barbarism but few have to live with it as constantly as the people of Germany. Their country was ruled by a man whose name has become synonymous with evil and they in turn did evil things by participating, actively or passively, in the systematic slaughter of their Jewish neighbors. And how does the next generation, those innocent of the crimes, reconcile their love for their parents and teachers and friends who were part of such a horrible regime?
Those are all fascinating questions and they're all pretty much dodged by The Reader which instead chooses to focus on steamy sex and illiteracy. Opportunity: missed.
Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) is a lawyer looking back on his life. As a teenager (David Kross), he entered into a highly sexual relationship with an older woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet). Years later, he discovered that she was on trial for her role as an S.S. guard and the resulting death of 300 Jews who burned to death trapped inside a building. Awwwkward. Feeling betrayed, he hides the revelation that she's illiterate and thus couldn't have written a report which implicates her as the leader of the defendants. He still goes on to become a lawyer because clearly the truth is what matters to him. But I guess guilt does settle in as he decides to read an entire library worth of books to her via audiotape and sends the tapes to her in prison.
It's a one-sided romance, where, on the page at least, Michael's attitudes and emotions completely make sense insofar as his relationship with Hanna. But the film runs up against numerous problems. First, it's a movie that's comprised almost entirely of effects without cause. The Reader is so eager to get to the next dramatic scene that it seems to skip the boring set-ups so it can get to the drama, or in the case of the film's first act, lots and lots of sexing. Second, while Fiennes and Winslet may get their names on the marquee, a lot of the film rests with Kross and he just can't carry it. He's not bad at playing an awkward teen whose getting some but when a heavy emotional scene comes along, he's ill-equipped to stand toe-to-toe with Winslet, who does a lot with very little.
Sadly, having very little, she can't save the role from the embarrassment of having her character choose to be seen as a murderer rather than illiterate. This is why set-ups are important and because the film chooses to skip those set-ups, we can't identify or even begin to understand why Hanna would see illiteracy as a greater crime than killing 300 Jews. It removes all conflict from Michael's love of her and simply makes it into an infatuation. Worst of all, the decision removes all credibility from Hanna as a character because it's unfathomable that anyone would rather be seen as responsible for the death of 300 innocent people rather than, god forbid, illiterate.
In its rush to what it thinks is dramatic, The Reader ends up being unintentionally comic and a mostly drab affair with distant characters played by actors who either can't handle the material or don't have any material to work with in the first place.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
12.10.08