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The Reader
After The Reader became the first German novel to top the New York Times Best Sellers List, it was inevitable that the book, written by law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink was going to be made into a movie. It was also inevitable that the film would create controversy. Any film or book that paints a picture of someone involved with perpetrating the Holocaust as anything less than a monster will always be controversial.
In director Stephen Daldry’s (The Hours) film version of the book, a lot of the attention of the press has been diverted to the performance of Kate Winslet and rightly so as her portrayal of concentration camp guard Hanna Schmitz is a career highlight amongst a body of work filled with great performances. This diversion will certainly help the film at the box office.
The book and movie tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager had an affair with the much older Schmitz. At the height of the affair Schmitz disappears rendering Berg as an emotional cripple. He later comes in contact with her during war trials that as a law student he is required to view. He leans more about the reasons of her sudden departure and has information that will help her case but is emotionally unable to step forward to help.
The film is sympathetic towards the character of Hanna Schmitz and the embarrassing nature of the secret that she keeps and this fact alone created a lot of negative press for the novel. In the film, this secret creates empathy for Schmitz and makes her evil feel more real as it is portrayed in real human terms and not in a cartoonish fashion.
The Reader is not without its flaws, the biggest one being how dissimilar the look of the actors playing Berg as a youth (David Kross) and adult (Ralph Fiennes) are. Having said that, the almost always-weepy looking Fiennes is well suited to playing the emotionally stilted Berg as an adult. Elsewhere the film succeeds in establishing the feel of the post war times through the idyllic eyes of youth and the more jaded views of adulthood while telling a story that is complex and interesting.
Rob Hudson
official website
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