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The Reader
(2008)
The Reader is a complex film about many things, from justice and morality to retribution and remorse, but most of all the movie is about shame. Rare are people who are unfamiliar with this feeling, and those who aren't immune to its clutches know just how paralyzing and festering shame can be. While on the surface The Reader would appear to be a simple love story, it is in fact a commentary on the power of our secrets to define our lives and rip them apart. While a boy's first sexual experience is always an influential part of one's development, for the film's protagonis, what starts as an emotionally sado-masochistic relationship with an emotionally distant older woman turns into the single most influential event of his life, and ultimately forces him to come to terms with his own shame, the shame of his nation, and the pain of moving forward with nothing hidden.
When fifteen-year-old Michael Berg (David Kross) first meets the older Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) their relationship is nothing notable but it quickly grows into his sexual awakening as she entertains him throughout a summer. In exchange for him reading aloud to her, Hanna gives of herself daily, but one gets the sense that she is emotionally disengaged. Then, she suddenly leaves without notice, breaking Michael's heart and turning his world upside down. Years later, as a student in law school, Michael is faced with the truth of Hanna's past as a spectatorto her trial for her involvement in the SS work camps during World War II. During the trial, Michael realizes that he possesses knowledge capable of exonorating Hanna, at least in part, for her crimes. Knowledge that Hanna herself is too ashamed to admit to the court. It is here, more than halfway through the film, that the film's investigation of shame comes into full view, and from this point on it is the primary focus.
The Reader delves deep into the cycle of regret and the compounding of secrets, from Hanna's secret shame as an illiterate to Michael's lifelong guilt over keeping his own secret and allowing Hanna to take the full brunt of the blame for the crimes commited by many. One secret, beginning with Hanna's actions in World War II, through the couple's illicit affair and into Michael's adulthood, built atop one another in a seemingly endless chain of guilt and shame, until the levy breaks and Michael (played as a grown man by Ralph Fiennes) decides to open up and share his secrets with those he loves. Even the nation of Germany itself is depicted struggling with the outing of its own guilt, and the discourse between Michael's fellow students and his professor on the topic of collective guilt are enough to warrant a complete essay of analysis.
Based on the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink, The Reader is an abnormal film in the sense that it contains so little dialog for a drama such as this. Its frequent, introspective scenes of near silence provide a realism and subtlety found rarely in modern cinema, and the result is an effective balance between pathos and melodrama. Director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) draws challenging performances from the entire cast, of whom leads Kate Winslet and David Kross are notably exceptional. I can't think of a time in recent memory that a performer's facial expressions were as nuanced and powerful as those of Kross, whose emotional struggles and inner torment come into glaring light on the big screen.
The Reader does what every serious drama strives for it leaves the viewer's mind spinning with questions left unanswered, pondering the deep issues of life. Not only is this film an affecting love story, but it brings to light personal questions of morality and shame. And for a film which has the Nazi crimes of World War II very much at its core, The Reader handles these issues without ever resorting to heavy-handedness or preaching.I challenge any viewer to see this film and not leave the theater second-guessing your own closely-held secrets. As Michael learns, sharing your shame is the first step in freeing yourself from its hindring grasp.
-Mark Moreland
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Director:
Stephen Daldry
Writer: David Hare, Bernhard Schlink
Starring: Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Runtime: 123
min
Rating: R
Release Date: December 10, 2008
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