The Reader (2008)

I'm going to spoil the "secret" so don't read this if you haven't seen it...also, don't read it if you like the movie.

Simply put: this movie's message is ridiculous and every single bit of the story felt as though it missed the mark. I admire the acting, but what's the point when it's in service of such a cruddy story?

I never felt involved with the characters -- never felt even on the brink of any emotion toward them. It wasn't out of distaste/outrage over the the affair, either. That was a rather simple formula after all: attractive middle-aged loner + good-looking but inexperienced teen + opportunity = uh-oh. I didn't hate the first half (the "read-to-me then we'll screw" affair half) of the film, but I kept thinking of it as the set-up, that the real stuff would come later. The filmmakers obviously thought that was the case as well: here's the titillation & now here's the MESSAGE: Ta-Da!!

We jump into the future where the kid is now in law-school and the lover is now on trial for Nazi war crimes. Oh! I get it! She was bossy because she'd been a guard! She was sad because she was ashamed of what she did! And, oh my gosh, she made the prison camp kids read to her just like she made her boy-toy read to her...which means, wait for it....she can't read! Ohmygosh, it's all coming together!

Except it doesn't. Who in their right mind would choose to take sole blame for a tragic decision rather than admit that, due to illiteracy, she couldn't have penned the cover-up? And what about the kid? Why, having sussed out the big secret, does he keep silent? If he thinks she deserves the sentence, doesn't it follow that the other guards involved (the ones who can read) are deserving as well? Or is this simply a personal vendetta: I know she's not the only guilty one, but she hurt me!! This'll teach her!! And why does the final, adult, version of the boy behave so standoffishly with Hanna in prison when he'd been responsible for giving her hope in the first place?

It's all just set-up with no believable payoff. I'd have even settled for an unbelievable but satisfying wrap-up, but instead we get a weak non-resolution that just made me think "so what?"

C-