The Reader - A Review

Directed by Stephen Daldry

Written by David Hare

Starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross

124 minutes

2008

If you wanted a literal title for this movie, you'd only have to change one word. It would be The Shame. It's about shame in all its guises. The shame of our past. The shame of love. The shame of atrocities. The shame we have from others' shame.

Michael (played by Kross - the elder Michael is played by Fiennes), a 15 year old boy, falls ill while traveling home. He is helped to his destination by a resident of the building Michael has vomited in front of. Her name is Hanna (Winslet), and is 30ish. Months later, after Michael has fully recovered from his bout with scarlet fever, he returns to the building with flowers to thank Hanna. Teenage curiosity leads Michael to peek at her when she's changing clothes. She catches him, and his shame feeds his impulse to flee. He returns again - presumably to apologize - and sexual tension is quickly exposed. Michael, a boy, and Hanna, a woman, embark on whirlwind summer fling that will alter the course of both their lives.

I am going to divulge some spoilers in this review. You are warned.

First things first. Michael is a smart boy, and this intrigues Hanna. She asks him to read to her before they make love. We learn later - but suspect throughout - that she is actually illiterate. She hides this secret from all. She's ashamed by it. Michael hides the affair from all, as well. Surely he recognizes the inappropriateness of the situation. One can only imagine the outcry if his parents discovered this. He's ashamed in a way.

The secret takes on a whole new dimension some years after Hanna abruptly leaves her apartment and Michael. An impenetrable layer of shame is mixed in with it.

Michael, now a law student, is attending with fellow classmates and a professor trials against a handful of female SS workers (Nazis) from Auschwitz. Hanna is one of the defendants. She was a guard.

It's difficult to pinpoint anything more shameful than the atrocities of the Holocaust. If evil does exist, that's probably the best example of it.

The scope of the predicament is quite large at this point. Because Hanna has led a life of shame due to her illiteracy, she is unable to properly defend herself. And, quite possibly, because of her illiteracy she is unable to understand what she was a part of. She cannot grasp the inherent wrong of her actions as an SS guard.

Just like she couldn't grasp the wrongness of taking advantage of a teenaged boy.

This is a troubling film and story in so many ways. Here we deal with statutory rape, crimes against humanity, and choosing not to help someone.

Michael learns that Hanna is illiterate during the course of this trial. Hanna, in her stubbornness to defend her shameful secret of illiteracy, accepts far more blame than her co-defendants. Michael chose not to go forward with helping prove her illiteracy. He would be exposing his past affair with a Nazi.

He is ashamed of himself.

This is a fantastic film in every single way. Kate Winslet is absolutely captivating. There is a reason why she has a monopoly on roles like this. She's probably the best there ever will be onscreen. My theory on her is this: she is able to dominate the screen because she, as a person, understands the material she's working with. I would be willing to bet she is a legitimate intellectual mind that understands how she needs to play a role to assist in conveying the message that the script is giving us. I don't get that feeling with many of the leading actresses - including the perennial Oscar favorites.

Kross is a fantastic young actor that, in the middle of the film, I couldn't help but notice his resemblance to a brooding Heath Ledger. Fiennes is a quiet legend of the cinema. He never phones it in.

David Hare adopted Bernhard Schlink's novel of the same name. This really is an ode to literature, in a way - and it's delivered in a truly literary way. It's preachy, it's adult, and it's rather dry. Simultaneously it's one of the most captivating tales I've encountered dealing with the Holocaust. Gobs of films and stories attempt to make sense of the Holocaust - some are among the upper echelon of great movies. The Reader is in the upper echelon.

Director Daldry and Hare collaborated previously on The Hours, which was brilliant as well. They are an intellectual giant of a team. Difficult material, and exemplary results.

I am aware of many criticisms of this story. I believe some think it's a way to try to lessen the guilt of the lower-level guards of the SS in the concentration camps, and it's clearly not. Hanna is rightly punished with extreme severity.

It does pose the scenario that a professor of mine discussed in a public theory class I took as an undergraduate. He discussed a locomotive operator that drove the train that housed the prisoners to the death camps. The operator couldn't comprehend why he was held in such disregard and charged with crimes. His job was to ensure the train arrived on time. That was his job.

How can you explain the atrocity of the Holocaust to someone that intimately involved in it that simply has no comprehension of their actions?

The train operator and Hanna are pretty much the same person. Did they do any killing themselves? No. But they may as well have.

You see, the only reason Hanna joined the SS was because she had been offered a promotion at her current job - but she would have to work in the office. Meaning her secret that she was illiterate would come to light. She heard the SS needed guards...

The train operator needs to operate trains in order to work. He took an available job...

Michael chose not to bring to the court's attention that Hanna was illiterate and couldn't have done some of the things she was ultimately convicted of. So, while Hanna grew old in prison, he sent her tapes of him reading the stories he read to her that one summer when he was just a love-struck teen.

It helped assuage his shame...

Scott.