![]() What's wrong with this? They still spoke wrong! It's all set in Germany but they spoke in English with a carefully cultivated German accent, and I cannot for the life of me see why that was necessary. Firstly, all the actors had a dialect coach to make sure they spoke properly. That's not to say that I didn't have any issues with the movie. Aside from Winslet's performance, which captures the cold reality of the existence of an SS bureaucrat with chilling believability, David Kross exudes the the exuberance and precocious emotional awareness of young Michael Berg with a deft capability I could never have anticipated and Ralph Fiennes is absolutely superb as the older Michael Berg who is to visit the ageing Schmitz in a bid to exorcise his own demons. A beautifully poignant debate on law, ethics and coming to terms with the crimes of the past committed by those still around you, THE READER makes for compelling viewing. Soon a trial of SS officials gets underway and as a Michael is brought along to the trials by his Professor as an exercise in the relationship between law and ethics, but what he doesn't realise is that one of the defendants is his former lover. Deeply troubled by her disappearance, Michael nonetheless gets on with his life and goes on to study law. At the tender age of 15 he has a youthful affair with Hanna Schmitz (Winslet), a woman more than double his age. Based on a hugely important novel, THE READER is set in post WWII Germany and tells the story of Michael Berg. Perhaps it's just the time of year, but this kind of diversion from the content of a film is bad enough but in the case of THE READER it is criminal. Another example is Sean Penn, who was all Oscar-hyped in MILK. I had previously highlighted the same phenomenon in relation to DEAN SPANLEY where an ageing Peter O'Toole was singled out to the extent that all commentary on the film was dominated by the fact he has been criminally overlooked in the Oscars for half a century. There is no doubt that she delivers a great one again, but that the hype surrounding this film as been focussed on it is frankly ridiculous. ![]() The title I have given this review does not reflect my opinion on her performance.
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