Comments on: Review: The Reader

By: mysara

mysara — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:48:30 +0000

brilliant………… it was really a watchable film. all over of the film was auosome … but the sexuality between older hanna(kate) & michael(david) is not clear to me. but the screen play was so good. Really kate is brilliant………….

By: Toufiq

Toufiq — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:12:38 +0000

There are so many questions about the film…..
How come they make a film with so many unanswered questions?

At the first place I don’t get what was the aim of the movie? To portray the LOVE between persons with such a huge generation gap or to shed a light on the story of the concentration camps during HITLER? Well, if it was the first one then, I must say why so complex and secretive about the feelings they had for each other? From the looks of it both of them were enjoying it. I don’t get Hanna’s motive in this affair….. was it love or satisfying her carnal desire? but for Michael it was a teenage fascination….

I was actually hoping at least Hanna would tell Michael she was leaving…..

Or Michael could tell her secret of being illiterate…..

Oh! I am really sad that they had to end up paying so heavily for their mistakes…

By: Bobby C

Bobby C — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:26:58 +0000

I finally saw the movie last night. I have mixed feeling about it. It definitely worked as a coming-of-age drama about a teenage boy’s summer affair with an older woman but the Holocaust aspect is not as effective. The movie feels disjointed as it goes forward and backward in time and pandering for our emotions when Fiennes’ character visits the concentration camp (I felt that scene was unnecessary; we’ve seen those more effectively dealt with in Schindler’s List and The Pianist). It would have been nice if Fiennes’ character would try to learn more about Hanna’s past either directly or indirectly (I don’t know if the book talked about this). Otherwise, those unresolved feelings and secret longings for her that surfaced later on was quite touching. I felt, however, that Kate’s character looked too old in the movie– she died when she was 66 years old but her character looked 80. I’m thinking of reading the novel it was based on as well as Anton Chekhov’s story about the lady with the dog.

By: cdouglas

cdouglas — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:28:51 +0000

I’m happy for the very talented Winslet, but I must say, she probably should have won a Golden Globe for her acceptance of those Golden Globes.

By: Bobby C

Bobby C — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:59:58 +0000

I look forward to seeing this movie. Kate Winslet just won at the Golden Globes tonight for this role and for Revolutionary Road!

By: cdouglas

cdouglas — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:04:51 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. I’d really like to see “Revolutionary Road”, but it hasn’t turned up around here yet. Surely the re-teaming of Kate and Leo will expand reasonably wide before too long?

By: Christopher Kulik

Christopher Kulik — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:47:58 +0000

I couldn’t agree more, Clark. Certainly a well told story and technically beautifully, but it didn’t exactly move as smoothly as you would like. However, part of the reason of my slight disappointment could be because I saw “Revolutionary Road” twice before this and it left me so emotionally drained that it gave me a weird disconnect watching “The Reader” as I kept thinking about Winslet from the previous film. (That’s also saying despite the fact the gloriously beautiful woman shows a lot of flesh here!) Outstanding review! Chris