38 out of 41 people found the following review helpful:
The Reader
A Customer from Billericay,
13th January, 2009
David Hare and Stephen Daldry, the team responsible for the masterpiece 'The Hours' now go even darker with this period drama set in post-WWII Germany. In an articulate and compelling screenplay, Hare brings to life the controversial novel by Bernhard Schlink, in which bus conductor Hannah Schmitz (Kate Winslet) starts to romance a 15 year old school boy, Micheal (David Kross). This romance has a strange routine to it. He arrives at her flat, undresses, reads to her - passages from his school books, the classics or holiday guides - then they make love. This grows into a passionate and meaningful sexual relationship between them, as he starts to sacrifice spending time with his friends and family, in order to go to Hannah's apartment for their afternoon routine. This results in some frank, but well handled, sex scenes between the Michael and the woman twice his age. Then, unexpectedly, she disappears. He grows older, hurt by the sudden end to his new-found sexual desires and the love he had for Hannah grows into an ache. This leads him, moody and erratic, to take Law at university, thereby changing his surroundings and associates in order to forget the hurt. However, he does meet Hannah again, but in very different and shocking circumstances. There is no denying that the script's eloquence and intelligence are a gift to the actors, especially Kate Winslet, who builds on such wonderful dialogue with her usual excellence. As further plot revelations are uncovered, it may be hard for viewers to retain some sympathy for Hannah's character, but Winslet gives her such a high degree of humanity and depth it is impossible not to find Hannah Schmitz fascinating if not likable. It may be disconcerting to see the actors speaking in English with German accents, reading from English-language books, while things like street signs, public notices and even calendars remain written in German, but it doesn't spoil the mood of the piece, nor does it reduce its level of integrity or believability.
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