Monday, March 24, 2014

The Reader (2008)


Academy Awards, USA 2009

Won
Oscar
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet
Nominated
Oscar
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Anthony Minghella
Sydney Pollack
Donna Gigliotti
Redmond Morris
The nominations for Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously.
Best Achievement in Directing
Stephen Daldry
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
David Hare
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Chris Menges
Roger Deakins

The Weinstein Company
Directed by Stephen Daldry
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Genius Products)

Teenager David Kross gets involved with the much older Kate Winslet after a chance encounter. The love affair ends when she abruptly moves out of her apartment with no explanation. Years pass, the boy is now a law student, and while watching the trial of former Nazi guards accused of murder is horrified to recognize his old lover as one of the defendants. She takes the fall for the women on trial and is sentenced to life in prison. Twenty years later, she is eligible for parole, but her only hope for a life outside of prison rests with her now middle-aged former lover. An uneven film that can't decide if it wants to titillate, Kate spends most of the first half nude, or tackle the harder questions of post-WWII Germany. More time spent on the latter would have made a better film, but the story is so well told, and Winslet's performance so convincing, that one can almost overlook the sexual indulgences.

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