The Reader Review
By David Kempler
My Weakly Reader
"The Reader" is really two movies. It's not billed that way but it is. The first part is a dab of soft-core porno set in Berlin in 1958. The participants in this section are Michael Berg (David Kross), a teenage boy discovering sexuality, and his partner, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), a woman approximately 20 years his senior. He is a high school student. She collects fares on the local tram. Together they have endless sexual sessions that while hot, are oddly sterile and awkward. This is because Hanna fluctuates between openly hostile, firecracker sexy, and distracted by something far off in the distance.
While the audience is quickly aware of the distraction, young Mr. Berg is clueless. Even though he is a young and inexperienced man, one can't help but wanting to jump into the screen and shake him until he figures out what is going on. It's frustrating to watch, and boring to boot. Here is a clue; a De Niro-Streep film touched upon the same topic, although it was handled much differently there.
Part two of "The Reader" begins in 1966, when Michael enters the law school in Heidelberg. Michael is also a strange fellow, unable to form any meaningful relationships or friendships. His professor takes Michael and his classmates on a field trip to watch a trial. The trial jolts Michael because of who and what is being dealt with in the courtroom. Before the trial is over, Michael distinguishes himself by demonstrating that he is a man of inaction and low moral fiber.
While Part two is less boring than Part one, it is stilted and forced. There is no real flow. Whether this is a problem with the script, the direction or the acting is hard to determine although it doesn't matter. It should be said that Winslet gives a very good performance but I suspect that many will find it to be a virtuoso performance. I didn't find it to be worthy of that level.
If you've looked at the credits for "The Reader" you may have noticed that it purportedly stars Ralph Fiennes as the grown-up Michael Berg. This is a joke. His time on screen is relatively small and even when he is walking and talking, he is not doing his usual fine work. Yes, he shows tortured expressions and stares into space but he is empty. He is merely a prop to show in contrast to his younger years and to include in Hanna's later years. It is in these later years that the director, Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot), tries to wrap it all up as a masterpiece but instead leaves us with a limp noodle that scene after scene tries to outdo itself with dripping meaning and heaviness. None of it works. Some of the later scenes are squeamishly bad. "The Reader" wants to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. It is what used to be called a dime store novel.
