The Reader

The basic premise: A boy of 15, in 1950s Germany, has an affair with an
older woman. He's besotted with her as only a lad having lots of sex for the
first time can be, she's quite odd, and finds some sort of comfort that she
needs with him. All seems to be going reasonably well for them until one day
she disappears without warning. Years later, the boy's in college studying Law,
and goes to observe a war crimes trial, in which the older woman is a
defendant. Well, we all know how awkward it can be running into an ex.

Really don't know what to think about this film, to be honest. It's very well
made, the performances are excellent, it's very emotionally involving and
affecting. There is, however, in my mind, a problem. And that is that the plot
is so incredibly contrived. Or rather, Kate Winslet's character is incredibly
contrived. Because what this plot requires is a sympathetic concentration camp
guard. Especially as the plot requires one who is not shown as particularly
repentant. So the effect is of an incredibly weird and screwed up person.

So, essentially, we have a boy (and later a man) suffering the aftermath of all
this, and never really getting over it. But unfortunately, to me at least, the
situation seems so implausible to me, such an edge case of the human condition,
that you kind of wonder why we're being asked to consider it at all. It seemed
that the objective of the film was just to create the most complex knot of
guilt possible. There seemed to be no other purpose or conclusion to it.

So, 8/10. In that it's an excellent bit of cinema, but perhaps not so much of a
story.