“The Reader” is a film that manages to simultaneously be relatable and unfathomable, as well as emotional and distant all at once because of its characters, plot and locale.
Based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Bernard Schlink, it’s the story of the unlikely but captivating love that starts in 1950s Germany between a lonely tram worker and a teenage boy nearly two decades her junior. After the train ride, Hanna (Kate Winslet) helps Michael (David Kross) home because he has fallen ill with scarlet fever.
When he eventually gets better and brings her flowers to thank her, she initially acts almost cold to him. Things, however, quickly heat up between them leading to some pretty explicit sexual scenes between them. The sudden, intense physical attraction is almost repellant at first due to the age difference and their lack of familiarity with each other. They don’t even know their names until after a few of his… um…visits, and even after she learns his name is Michael, she still calls him “kid” like he’s never her equal.
So why is she so suddenly – and brazenly – attracted to him, we wonder?
It’s because he reads to her. (The Reader, get it?) It may sound odd, but they finally start to build an emotional connection to each other when he begins reading his school books like “The Odyssey” to her, and it’s actually heartfelt. By the time they truly connect and we actually start to accept their relationship, she suddenly leaves.
At this point the story shifts eight years forward to when Michael is a mature law student. There he and his classmates attend a trial for Nazi war crimes and to his surprise and ours, he sees Hanna on trial. Not only does Michael learn of her Holocaust involvement, he realizes another secret she’s been hiding.
While the latter secret is supposed to be much more meaningful and shocking, it comes as no surprise to the audience and doesn’t really garner the intended impact. The former secret, however, is extremely captivating. While it’s hard to relate to the specific circumstances at hand, it brings into question the issue of how you’re supposed to grapple with the situation of realizing someone you so deeply loved could be capable of something so horrible. Not only that, but does that change things and the way you felt?
The framing of the film is effective in revealing how Michael perceives Hanna at various times throughout his life. It initially begins in the 1990s with a middle-aged, emotionally guarded divorced lawyer who turns out to be the older version of Michael (Ralph Fiennes). Throughout its entirety, the film shifts around to different moments in his life, and we feel for Michael and his tale because we see and experience everything how he himself saw it.
We never quite understand Hanna’s motives or desires though. Coupled with the fact she was affliated with the Nazis, we never quite feel or relate to her. It doesn’t hurt she’s played by the wonderful Winslet, however, who just won a Golden Globe for her performance.
While we never love Hanna, Winslet doesn’t make her a monster which is good because Michael never knows quite how to perceive her either. Even better, it’s true to real life because people don’t always know the motivations or desires of others making it all the more frustrating when those people are the ones we love.
So even though this tale takes place a half a century ago in Germany and involves presently incomprehensible topics like Nazis and scarlet fever, it ultimately doesn’t matter. We get it anyway.
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