6 reviews

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The Hawk January 27, 2009

I thought the film illustrates among other things what has been memorably called "the banality of evil". Yes, the film is made with the box office in mind, and complex and terrible events are condensed into a story with one unfittingly sentimental element to its ending. Perhaps the beautiful Kate Winslet was an inappropriate casting choice for the character of Hannah - an "unknown" would probably have been better dramatically - but the film takes head-on the way in which evil came and often still comes into the world dressed in humble clothes, carried out by people who persuade themselves that their actions are justified. Without condoning the actions of the character of Hannah the film memorably dramatizes the way in which poor and ordinary people unthinkingly became part of the Nazi killing machine.

An intelligent and very grown up film which does not patronise nor seek to make your mind for you. I was enthralled by the exquisite performances from Kate Winslet and David Kross in particular, with equally potent performances from an entire cast of accomplished actors including Bruno Ganz, and left with a deep sense of unease.

The movie deals with such thorny issues as personal and collective responsibility, morality and the Law and redemption (or lack of) therein. But this not about morality and in my opinion does not seek to have a moral. It goes beyond the realms of morality, only seeking to raise questions, not answer them.

Hannah's character is purposefully ambiguous, a woman with a deeply dark and disturbing past but who is unflinchingly honest about her terrible crimes when confronted about them. She is almost simple minded in her convictions that she was only "doing her job". She is the perfect illustration of what unquestioning and slavish behaviour leads to. The lesson is that humans must go beyond simply following and being led, that evil is always best served by a lack of intelligence and a devotion to doing your "job".

And yet the film does not preach. Conclusions must be drawn by each and every viewer as THEY see fit not as the film-maker wishes them to. Hanna's character is drawn in broad brush strokes, but the script does not seek to condone her actions merely to explain and bring them to light.

I found The Reader refreshingly adult. It made me think and feel but I was left to come to a decision about my own views without any "leading of the witnesses". This is a tale, a story, not a moral fable.
The plot unfolds, beautifully and deftly handled by exceptional actors and characters are imbued with a sense of realism. The script is mature and clever and the period details are so truthfully rendered as to give a real flavour of post WW2 Germany.

Not to be missed! Some have found it offensive or even pretentious  but I took something far more valuable from it: enough respect from the Director to treat me as a cogent adult with my own power of reasoning. I rather like that. Such a rare flower in the world of films and one to be savoured.

Pamplemousse 4 Feb 2009

Reading the book was equally disappointing: a good account of the man's emotions and the effect physical involvement can have (specially on subsequent relationships) but the rest is pretty shallow. Hanna's character is ambiguous and the treatment of national guilt half-hearted and unconvincing. My Jewish friends were outraged by it. Don't think it would have had much prominence if it had not been endorsed by Oprah and made into a film.

Undine 15 Jan 2009

The film never really makes the most of its material, since we learn so little about the characters (especially Winslet's). Most of the acting is of the widen-eye furrow-brow school in which Fiennes has always specialised. It's pretty boring, too, to be honest, since it's very predictable - once you know about the Winslet character's past, you know it's moving towards a sombre ending where we learn that her lover's life has been overshadowed by his involvement with her. A shorter, more intense study of the actual affair would have been more interesting, since we would have got some handle on why everyone is doing what they are doing. As it is, nothing is really explored in depth. I was very disappointed.

Ben 11 Jan 2009

I haven't read Bernhard Schlink's novel, so I don't know who is most to blame, but I did find the film troublingly fatuous. The implication that literature can somehow redeem the crimes of the Holocaust makes The Reader seem like Dead Poets' Society meets Schindler's List, which is as queasily incongruous as it sounds.

Even if it only means to suggest that literacy is a step towards moral improvement, that's surely a non sequitur - there have been plenty of well-read tyrants. It's like arguing that learning to drive makes you a better judge of character.

With some 'lush but tasteful' nudity, a maddeningly intrusive score expository dialogue telling us what to feel and think, and an ageing make-up job on poor Kate which makes her look like a leper (why didn't they just get the old lady from Titanic?), The Reader has the Weinsteins' cynical, Oscar-savvy paw-prints all over it. I have a lot of time for Stephen Daldry, and the cast do their best with the material, but this is a shallow misfire.

Young Offender 9 Jan 2009

An excellent film about romance, love, truth between lovers, openness, morality, law, the consequences of our actions, guilt, national guilt, the holocaust, making amends, teaching someone a lesson, symbolic gestures on the part of nations, making a few suffer the consequences of the many, and appropriately taking responsibility for one's actions. if you can handle all that, then see this film. Excellent acting by Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet.

Nick 7 Jan 2009