Pair of 'Reader' Reviews Tell Me I'm Going to Like It

Ahhhh, gotta like that word - 'cerebral'

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, December 1st 2008 at 1:54 AM

Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader
Photo: Weinstein Co.

I will be seeing The Reader on Tues, Dec. 9 and after reading a pair of reviews at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety I cannot wait. Kirk Honeycutt at THR has written what may be his absolute best review to date as he finally gives an opinion and gives his readers something to chew on despite his decision to discuss the film's release date schedule in his third paragraph. Honeycutt's review is also more flattering than Variety's Todd McCarthy's as McCarthy seems more interested in reviewing the film's box-office chances, but in the process brings me a sentence that makes me want to see it instantly:

Stephen Daldry’s film is sensitively realized and dramatically absorbing, but comes across as an essentially cerebral experience without gut impact.

Keep that sentence in consideration as I tell you the film is about a Holocaust perpetrator (Kate Winslet) whom we meet as she has an affair with Michael, a young boy she refers to as "Kid". After their affair she disappears for eight years only to make her reappearance as a defendent in a war crimes trial of which Michael attends as a law student in Heidelberg, Germany. Honeycutt gives us this interpretation of the situation:

Michael is shaken to his core by growing evidence that his first love is, by any standard, a monster. But how does one deal with a monster who is a lover? One can only condemn her; but in that condemnation, where lies the process of understanding?

The film makes no attempt to answer this question if indeed there is an answer. There is an explanation, not immediately apparent, for why Hanna found herself in a position to dictate life or death. But there is neither an excuse nor an offer of atonement ready for her.

The idea that the answers are kept ambiguous excite me even more. After leaving The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last night we discussed a similar instance where the story may have benefit from a little more uncertainty. I still loved the film, but wouldn't have minded a little something more to chew on after I left.

Of course, the idea of falling for the bad guy isn't a new idea, but at least it is a different look at the Holocaust, a topic Hollywood can't ever seem to abandon.

While Honeycutt appeared to enjoy the film a little more than McCarthy he does have one problem with Michael's sudden shock upon learning the true nature of his lover saying, "What remains unclear, in the film at least, is why Michael has seemingly never thought about any of this before 1966." The film appears to be strictly judging the idea of the "second generation" coming to grips with what happened and as McCarthy says how they decide "to react to and judge their elders" living in a postwar environment.

McCarthy, while highly praising Winslet's performance, offers up this major gripe against the feature:

A central problem with The Reader as a film is that one can never look inside the character of Hanna. Her life and behavior are invariably assessed from the outside — what she represents to Michael, the way the court and history take stock of her actions — but never by her. In fact, she denies that her own self-evaluation is of any importance. "It doesn't matter what I feel, it doesn’t matter what I think," she insists when asked about wartime atrocities. "The dead are still dead."

So where does that leave us?

Honestly, it leaves us exactly where we were about two minutes before you read this article, but now you are either intrigued or ready to forget this film. I am guessing on the former if you decided to click on this headline. However, the film itself is a different story.

The Weinstein Co. is pushing Winslet's performance as a supporting role in an effort to abandon competition between The Reader and Winslet's already appreciated performance in Paramount Vantage's Revolutionary Road. David Carr at the New York Times lists The Reader as one of his top eight films to consider for Oscar's Best Picture. However, Jeff Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere says, "Uhm, no. Not The Reader. Ixnay on the Eader-ray."

This is obviously just the beginning as the review embargo for The Reader was lifted only minutes ago and I expect we will begin to see more and more opinions trickle in over the next few days just in time for new predictions on Thursday. However, from these first two reviews they offer up what I love in films, something that makes you think and doesn't give you all the answers. Good start in my case.