Review of The Reader (2008) by Bill C — 10 Sep 2010

15 year old Michael Berg meets 36 year old Hannah Schmidt (Kate Winslit) by coincident when he gets sick on the street and she helps him get home. He returns several months later to thank her for helping him.

He catches sight of her putting on her nylons and he?s hooked. Hannah, a typical German control freak, enjoys her strapping love slave and having him reading literature to her. Hannah a very hard working German of a lower middle class.

Though having no formal education she is very hard worker. She has a need to live up to her own self-image through self improvement and has Michael read his school books to her everyday. It?s hard to watch any Holocaust related movie as a person with German heritage without a pucker factor.

This movie is the first I?ve seen that actually bring the holocaust down to the person to person level instead of the larger than life monsters vs. the helpless. Hannah Schmidt to Michael Berg. Beyond the tastefully graphic physical relationship that insues, the relationship between Michael and Hannah is one where she is entirely in control of the relationship.

Michael is comfortable in that role and does as directed this shadows the larger issues in the movie. Hannah Schmidt is portayed as very straight forward and honest and very German. At her trial she tells the truth even though it is very condemning.

She followed her orders and several hundred people died, she could not fathom how she was personally accountable. Micheal Berg when grown-up is portayed by Ralph Fiennis is a tortured man. He is torn between his feeling for Hannah, But more importantly for his betrayal of Hannah by not stepping up to the force of public opinion to save Hannah, when he was the one man who could.

In the end all the characters are merely human in there own way and none can stand-up to the pressure of popular opinion.