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.