Kate Winslet Movie:

		List Price: $29.95		Label: Weinstein Company Salesrank: 4985 Released: April 28, 2009
		Our Price: $12.29
		Used Price: $9.99
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
What is the nature of guilt--and how can the human spirit survive when confronted with deep and horrifying truths? The Reader, a hushed and haunting meditation on these knotty questions, is sorrowful and shocking, yet leavened by a deep love story that is its heart. In postwar Germany, young schoolboy Michael (German actor David Cross) meets and begins a tender romance with the older, mysterious Hanna (Kate Winslet, whose performance is a revelation). The two make love hungrily in Hanna's shabby apartment, yet their true intimacy comes as Michael reads aloud to Hanna in bed, from his school assignments, textbooks, even comic books. Hanna delights in the readings, and Michael delights in Hanna.

Years later, the two cross paths again, and Michael (played as an adult by Ralph Fiennes) learns, slowly, horrifyingly, of acts that Hanna may have been involved in during the war. There is a war crimes trial, and the accused at one point asks the panel of prosecutors: "Well, what would you have done?" It is that question--as one German professor says later: "How can the next generation of Germans come to terms with the Holocaust?"--that is both heartbreaking and unanswerable. Winslet plays every shade of gray in her portrayal of Hanna, and Fiennes is riveting as the man who must rewrite history--his own and his country's--as he learns daily, hourly, of deeds that defy categorization, and morality. "No matter how much washing and scrubbing," one character says matter of factly, "some sins don't wash away." The Reader (with nods to similar films like Sophie's Choice and The English Patient dares to present that unnerving premise, without offering an easy solution. --A.T. Hurley

The Reader [Blu-ray] Reviews:
The Reader
2009-12-13 - Slow story line, too much nudity, male & female but that is part of the story. Really gets interesting half way throught. Twist at the end of the movie, good watch.

Irony and Falsehood
2009-10-28 - I've read the book and seen the movie and while the movie is less tendentious and historically false than the book, it has serious moral problems as one reviewer notes. By sexualizing Kate Winslett and making her vulnerable through her nudity, it pushes us to both sympathize and eroticize her character, judging her despicable behavior much more difficult. But make no mistake: she was not powerless despite the movie's shameful attempt to make us believe she was. Nor is her "secret" remotely believable in the context of the times. I've reviewed the movie elsewhere, and am very sorry that so many viewers and reviewers think this is a profound treatment of the Holocaust or the human condition or anything at all:

[...]

The greatest irony of all is that Kate Winslett, playing a foul-mouthed actress on "Extras," said that the only way to get an Oscar was to play a "cripple" or be in a Holocaust movie. The writers of "Extras" certainly got that one right.

Mixed Morality
2009-09-21 - ***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Maybe it's just me, but I'm sort of surprised that the Jewish community hasn't gotten a tad up-in-arms over this film. I mean, it really sets a seriously sympathetic tone for a death-camp guard with unfortunate circumstances. I realize she wasn't well educated and had to make tough decisions in order to survive, but so did many people who came out of the holocaust ...Germans among them. But usually NOT death-camp personnel who were the overseers of those who went into gas chambers.

Still, this film is well-acted thanks to the amazing performance of Kate Winslet (The Holiday) as Hannah Schmitz, the guard in question. Although I won't take anything away from the other actors in this film, particularly young David Kross as Michael Berg, the boy turning into a man with the help of Hannah's sexual appeal, I will say that, without Winslet, this film likely would've fallen flat, theatrically.

Set across generations of Germans and Germany, the story is loaded with historical interest surrounding the holocaust courts that were set up after WWII. Hannah, not surprisingly, is a keystone for the courts as they uncover what they think is her sole involvement in the ordering of the deaths of Jewish women in one of the camps. Circling back to her time at the camps as a guard, it is quickly surmised (by the movie watcher and Michael, but not the courts) that Hannah has never learned to read, so has those she's about to condemn read to her.

The condemnation is set up in a way that allows Hannah to remember those she's let loose into the gas chambers; a sort of penance for what she is "forced" to do. In a similar manner, she condemns young Michael to a life of lovelessness in that he can never forget her, his first true love. And when Michael goes to school to become a lawyer, he and his classmates are soon brought into the case involving Hannah, but only as spectators. But for Michael, much more is apparent. He has the chance to save Hannah from the courts but is forced into a moral conundrum: Is she worth saving? Is she deserving?

The story continues as we watch Hannah's prison years pass by. With her age comes knowledge and words. Michael sends her packages containing books on tape that he recorded for her, emboldening Hannah to learn to read on her own. Which she does. But is it too late for personal forgiveness and redemption?

The ending hits pretty hard at these core issues. Personal responsibility. Moral condemnation. Rule of law. Historical atrocity. All of these are intertwined to form a patina of the past that blurs the future.

The film is watchable mainly for the purposes of Kate Winslet. Her performance is absolutely stellar. But the pacing and mixed moral message were tough to swallow for me. I'm not Jewish, but I believe that the holocaust happened. And I believe those associated with it, in any way, do not deserve our sympathies. Even those supposedly "forced" into these kinds of situations. Where's the morality in that?

spellbinding
2009-09-15 - wow! I wanted to hate this movie because of the content, however, you can't help but peek. I'm glad I got through the first half because it was worth it. Winslet deserved the oscar!

Beyond the cover
2009-08-20 - You can read the reviews about the plot, adult content and the courage in making such a movie, but allow me to bring forward the emotions and depth of an average viewer. As a thinking adult, you will be highly entertained, stimulated and challenged by this film. Bluntly, you will have one of the worthiest experiences of your life. Buy this movie, as it is a rare piece of quality entertainment.