Spring Break
Daldry's 'Reader' feels like lecture
by Justine Root
Arts Editor
Arts | 1/20/09
Posted online at 10:54 PM EST on 1/19/09
You would think that The Reader, a film about Michael Berg's memories of his relationship with an S.S. guard, would be more emotionally affecting than a law school textbook. Unfortunately, though, this latest World War II drama is about as heart-wrenching as the aforementioned educational staple; the film tackles the hefty moral issues that compose its core from a lawyer's point of view rather than a lover's, and the result is a sterile, heavy-handed affair.
Of course, The Reader isn't entirely devoid of emotion; it's just that the film decides to be heavy-hitting at all the wrong moments. Initially, when the 15-year-old Berg (David Kross) and Kate Winslet's 36-year-old Hanna Schmidtz begin their brief love affair, The Reader is in tune with its characters' sentiments. With teenage lust and emotional instability clashing onscreen, The Reader begins with a promising roar. (Indeed, throughout the film, those scenes featuring performances by Kross and Winslet are the film's best; it is no wonder that she won the Golden?Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Reader.)
However, as the plot progresses and the film moves from the bedroom to the courtroom, it begins to flounder and become a film of extremes. Apparently, The Reader is capable of conveying only raw emotion, and cannot operate on a more subtle level. For, as soon as the movie attempts to address Hanna's degree of guilt regarding both her status as a sexual predator and a Nazi ringleader the cast (Kross and Winslet notwithstanding) becomes a boring, analytical group that pontificates on Hanna's actions rather than debating them with other characters. In fact, for a film with such sensitive subject matter, it is amazingly devoid of conflict.
It doesn't help matters that the sets are drab and characterized primarily by fluorescent lights. I know courts, classrooms and dorms aren't particularly dynamic locales, but if your script is going to be so incredibly dry, you have to compensate for it somewhere.
Of course, The Reader isn't entirely devoid of emotion; it's just that the film decides to be heavy-hitting at all the wrong moments. Initially, when the 15-year-old Berg (David Kross) and Kate Winslet's 36-year-old Hanna Schmidtz begin their brief love affair, The Reader is in tune with its characters' sentiments. With teenage lust and emotional instability clashing onscreen, The Reader begins with a promising roar. (Indeed, throughout the film, those scenes featuring performances by Kross and Winslet are the film's best; it is no wonder that she won the Golden?Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Reader.)
However, as the plot progresses and the film moves from the bedroom to the courtroom, it begins to flounder and become a film of extremes. Apparently, The Reader is capable of conveying only raw emotion, and cannot operate on a more subtle level. For, as soon as the movie attempts to address Hanna's degree of guilt regarding both her status as a sexual predator and a Nazi ringleader the cast (Kross and Winslet notwithstanding) becomes a boring, analytical group that pontificates on Hanna's actions rather than debating them with other characters. In fact, for a film with such sensitive subject matter, it is amazingly devoid of conflict.
It doesn't help matters that the sets are drab and characterized primarily by fluorescent lights. I know courts, classrooms and dorms aren't particularly dynamic locales, but if your script is going to be so incredibly dry, you have to compensate for it somewhere.
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Daniel Ortner
posted 1/21/09 @ 4:36 PM EST
This is a pretty good review of the film, Justine
I did find one scene particularly powerful that you do not mention which involved Michael speaking to the survivors daughter in his obsession for self understanding or catharsis. (Continued…)
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