Cast: Kate Winslet, Damien Crosse, Ralph Fiennes

Director: Stephen Daldry

Screenplay: David Hare

Running time: 2 hrs 3 mins

Genre: Drama


CRITIQUE:


The last time Stephen Daldry directed a film, his actress won an Oscar Best Actress. Nicole Kidman was praiseworthy for The Hours. And the one before that, Daldry made a star out of Jamie Bell in the wonderful Billy Elliott. Now he’s turned Kate Winslet into something extraordinary. Not that she’s less compelling before, a record of five Oscar nominations makes for an intimidating acting CV, but she has made something devastatingly human in her character Hannah Schmitz, a tram-conductor-turned-concentration-camp-guard in the Holocaust period, that would question our own beliefs and prejudices. She carries an enormous moral question on her shoulders, a bitter, heartbreaking truth to her own humanity.


It is unfair to consider The Reader as a Holocaust film because it is not. And so is its source, Bernhard Schlink’s novel. It’s a human story, a love story made unfulfilled not because of repelling external forces but flaws deep within its main characters. That is to say, Winslet’s Hannah is a deeply flawed character but one that cannot be blamed. The film begins as an illicit love affair between a young German Michael Berg (played by Damien Kross) and a thirtysomething Hannah, whose relationship is the film’s most fascinating element. He is the reader and she is the listener. However it loses steam as Winslet disappears and letting the entire pressure settle on the adequate shoulders of Kross, with a lot of stilted German accents. But that’s nitpicking – this is a complex film, with a careful hand in direction, tackling serious adult issues. The grown-up Berg (played by Ralph Fiennes, rather superbly) faces his personal guilt complex, countered with his own nation’s fatal error. But redemption lies on Winslet, truly heartbreaking and poignant, she embodies the role without special quips but with sheer skill of characterisation. It’s an enigmatic and captivating performance. In the hands of a lesser actor, this role couldn’t have worked. She is so good in it you want her to be in every scene.


VERDICT:

Vital human drama that begins with intrigue then sags at the middle but ends with a deeply, morally affecting flourish. The Reader is thought-provoking, and features a spectacular, poignant performance by Winslet.



RATING: A-