Stars : Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and David Cross
Watch on : Prime Video
Made about sixteen years back, the film should rank as one of the outstanding films that are currently on the OTT circuit and for fans of the peerless actress, Kate Winslet (who first hit super stardom with her mega blockbuster ‘Titanic’ in 1997) this is a real treat. We have been following her films and apart from her astonishingly haunting beauty, her acting prowess & power to emote is at par with greats like Meryl Streep & Julia Roberts.
This is not a frothy entertainer like her film ‘Holiday’ but a dark human drama with her reprising the role of an older German woman, Hanna Schmitz in a deglamorised avatar. The film is non-linear in its narrative style and employs a lot of flashbacks frequently shifting from the past to the present and vice versa. The younger man is played with great sensitivity by David Cross while famed actor Ralph Fiennes has the mature part. It tells the post war (1958) story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a 15-year-old has a deep relationship with an older woman, Hanna and fateful incidents that follow.
Their liaison is of a young man’s infatuation with a mysterious woman who not only is attracted to his youth but loves his art of reading stories from famous books to her. But after a few months that bring bliss into their lives, she disappears only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp. As a law student attending the trial from the audience, Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a personal secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past. He struggles but cannot reveal the secret which could help her at the trial. Even with her sentencing, Hanna in prison cell realizes a dream, giving her fulfillment.
Films that are based on war crimes and delivering justice have been emotive and people react in different ways to the horrors as was superbly depicted in the film “Judgement at Nuremberg’ (1961) starring Spencer Tracy. ‘The Reader’ has Kate Winslet in Hanna’s complex character portrayed with perfection specially in the anguish that are conveyed through her eyes and withering that comes with age. For her stunning performance, Winslet won the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor.
One point that needs mention is that the movie is meant for mature audiences only and not recommended for young children for it’s explicit scenes and complex relationships.
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