The Reader: Better Off Than The Viewer review

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The Reader could have been an intriguing film. But every intrigue demands that it be sufficiently resolved before the end. The film prompts you to ask many questions but none of them are satisfactorily answered. When the end credits started rolling I scratched my head wondering whether I had missed something. Let me try and re-create my confusion.

Around the time of World War II, a 15 year old boy (David Kross) in Germany has an affair with a tram ticket checker (Kate Winslet). So deeply does he become involved in the affair that he rushes to her bed at every available opportunity, distancing himself from his friends and family. The first time they meet, he is throwing up at her door. Not exactly a pick up line that will get you the girl. So what does Winslet see in the boy then? I don't know.

Their flings settle down into a rhythm. They make love, followed by him reading out passages from books by literary giants. Homer, Chekov or at times even Tintin. The love making scenes and the nudity is a bit excessive and not particularly erotic. Whether it trivializes the holocaust or not, as has been alleged, is a matter of personal (and prejudiced) opinion. All I can say is that the film could have been slightly shortened if the first fifty minutes of passion was somewhat restricted.

A few years elapse. He is now a student of law and she is on trial for letting a few hundred Jews burn in a church when she could have opened the doors and let them escape. She being employed with the SS, the public and the judges do not take kindly to her defense that she was a guard and letting the victims escape would be breach of duty. I agree with the prosecution. It is never made clear why exactly she did not open the doors to the church. The boy has a bit of information that would prove Winslet's innocence. But he holds it back. Why? Is he afraid he will also have to reveal details about his illicit affair? Maybe yes. But this isn't brought out clearly enough by director Stephen Daldry. You have to sort of assume that this must be it.

As an adult, the boy is played by Ralph Fiennes. He tapes his readings of the books and sends her audio cassettes. Yet, he refuses to go to prison to meet her in person. Surely the guilt or the embarrassment about the affair cannot have lasted after so many years. And even if it has, he ought to be mature enough to overcome it. Especially when he has no one home to answer to. This makes Fiennes' character behave without purpose. And if there is, we demand a good solid reason to back it.

There are many moments in the film when you get the feeling that something big, something different is going to happen. Something that will alter the way you have been interpreting the film. But it never comes. It sets up your expectations but fails to meet them. Its one of those stories that is better serviced in the novel form rather than a movie. Some emotions are very difficult to portray on screen. Maybe Bernhard Schlink on whose partly autobiographical book the movie is based feels the same way.

Winslet is as capable as ever. I saw this film almost immediately after Revolutionary Road and can't help wondering how good she is at alternating between repressed emotions and outbursts. A positive word for the make up artist too. You can ‘˜feel' her age before your eyes. She does not have the advantage here that she had in Titanic of another actor playing her character once it has advanced in years. David Kross fits his role but hardly does much to come out of Winslet's shadow. Fiennes' role is too brief for me to comment on it.

When it makes to the Indian cinema halls, The Reader is most likely to be chopped off of a lot of ‘˜those' scenes. And I think that is not a bad idea at all. Our censor board will do what the editor did not. It may actually improve the experience for you.

[rating:2.5]