Review of The Reader (2008) by Tracy A — 16 Jul 2010

Kate Winslet is good, even excellent, but I'm surprised this is the role that won her an Oscar. Sure, she's believable and sometimes heartbreaking in her performance, but I think that many of her past roles have been much richer and more memorable.

Maybe I'm just saying all this because the movie surrounding her is so ridiculous. The Reader is certainly unusual and it kept me entertained, but I just wasn't convinced by it. There's almost no character development.

The first half is basically one long montage of reading and then having sex - it's like some bizarre Oscar-baiting porn for literature professors. There are few attempts to build any sense of emotion or character, The Reader is entirely cold and clinical in its construction.

Then the second half dissolves into Twilight-worthy scenes of endless moping and brooding. The movie does touch on interesting themes of German guilt, but never really explores them. It just mentions them and lazily hopes that the audience will explore them, instead wasting its time with endless scenes of the character wandering around and moping.

The Best Picture nomination for this was a total joke.