The Reader
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The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
What critics thought
The Reader divided critics sharply along a single fault line: whether the film's emotional machinery serves genuine moral inquiry or quietly asks audiences to sympathize with a perpetrator of atrocity. Winslet's performance drew near-universal admiration, but the film around her was widely seen as too tasteful, too restrained, and ultimately too comfortable with its own discomfort — aestheticizing the Holocaust rather than reckoning with it.
“This engrossing, graceful adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's semi-autobiographical novel has been adapted by screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry with equal parts simplicity and nuance, restraint and emotion.”
Ann Hornaday·The Washington Post
“the film is neither about the Holocaust nor about those Germans who grappled with its legacy: it's about making the audience feel good about a historical catastrophe that grows fainter with each new tasteful interpolation.”
Manohla Dargis·The New York Times
“Michael is a victim of abuse, and his abuser just happened to have been a luscious retired Auschwitz guard. You can call their tryst and its consequences a metaphor of two generations of Germans passing guilt from one to the next, but that doesn't explain why filmmakers Daldry and Hare luxuriated in the sex scenes – and why it's so tastefully done audiences won't see it for the child pornography it is.”
Thelma Adams·The Huffington Post
“countless opportunities to become overly sentimental or dramatic and resists every one of them, resulting in a film which by its conclusion, has you not knowing which quality to praise the most”
Colm Andrew·Manx Independent
Accolades
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Romance
Cast & Crew
Stephen DaldryDirector
Ralph FiennesMichael Berg
Kate WinsletHanna Schmitz
David KrossYoung Michael Berg
Lena OlinRose Mather
Bruno GanzProfessor Rohl
Jeanette HainBrigitte
Hannah HerzsprungJulia
Karoline HerfurthMarthe
Volker BruchDieter Spenz
Alexandra Maria LaraYoung Ilana Mather
Fabian BuschHanna's Defense Council
Vijessna FerkicSophie
Nico MuhlyComposer
David HareWriter
Roger DeakinsCinematography
Chris MengesCinematographyThe Reader
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
What critics thought
The Reader divided critics sharply along a single fault line: whether the film's emotional machinery serves genuine moral inquiry or quietly asks audiences to sympathize with a perpetrator of atrocity. Winslet's performance drew near-universal admiration, but the film around her was widely seen as too tasteful, too restrained, and ultimately too comfortable with its own discomfort — aestheticizing the Holocaust rather than reckoning with it.
“This engrossing, graceful adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's semi-autobiographical novel has been adapted by screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry with equal parts simplicity and nuance, restraint and emotion.”
Ann Hornaday·The Washington Post
“the film is neither about the Holocaust nor about those Germans who grappled with its legacy: it's about making the audience feel good about a historical catastrophe that grows fainter with each new tasteful interpolation.”
Manohla Dargis·The New York Times
“Michael is a victim of abuse, and his abuser just happened to have been a luscious retired Auschwitz guard. You can call their tryst and its consequences a metaphor of two generations of Germans passing guilt from one to the next, but that doesn't explain why filmmakers Daldry and Hare luxuriated in the sex scenes – and why it's so tastefully done audiences won't see it for the child pornography it is.”
Thelma Adams·The Huffington Post
“countless opportunities to become overly sentimental or dramatic and resists every one of them, resulting in a film which by its conclusion, has you not knowing which quality to praise the most”
Colm Andrew·Manx Independent
Accolades
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Romance
Cast & Crew
Stephen DaldryDirectorRalph FiennesMichael BergKate WinsletHanna SchmitzDavid KrossYoung Michael BergLena OlinRose MatherBruno GanzProfessor RohlJeanette HainBrigitteHannah HerzsprungJuliaKaroline HerfurthMartheVolker BruchDieter SpenzAlexandra Maria LaraYoung Ilana MatherFabian BuschHanna's Defense CouncilVijessna FerkicSophieNico MuhlyComposerDavid HareWriterRoger DeakinsCinematographyChris MengesCinematographyStream
Rent & Buy