Review of The Reader (2008) by Jackson C — 08 Mar 2013
Kate Winslet delivers one of the best performance I've seen, it is hard not to feel the sorrow and guilt that she emits towards the end and the innocence and confusion at the beginning. To me, the character Hanna Schmitz could be alluded back to the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and that literacy could be compared to morality.
At first, Hanna is only able to listen, thus without truly apprehending on her actions, her pride, or rather a sense of unwillingness to grasp the severity of the events have led to her unease to admitting her illiteracy, much like many of the SS and Nazi members.
It was her sense of naiveness that she has done what she did without understanding the consequences, much like her relationship with Michael. Towards the end, as she learned how to read, she also grasped the knowledge of morality, and it was upon this new found knowledge that she faced her death.
A wonderful allegory, but I'm not sure if this was the film's original intension. On another note, while the aging of Hanna is done masterfully, the same could not be said for Michael, the film should have done a much better job in this regard.
This review of The Reader (2008) was written by Jackson C on 08 Mar 2013.
The Reader has generally received positive reviews.
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