I just finished watching an Oscar nominated movie "The Reader".
I had earlier preferred against watching "The Milk" for its homosexual content.Pardon me, I am not that narrow-minded but I was just not very comfortable. But on the other hand, Curious Case of Benjamin Button absolutely blew off my mind.So, I had great expectations from this movie too. Dircted by Stephen Daldry, it is based on an award-winning novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink.
Set in the backdrop of the holocaust times, the movie deals with a wonderful relationship between Hanna Schmitz(Kate Winslet) and Michael Berg(David Kross).Hanna, isolated by her existence, finds this young guy, sick and dull. It wasn't that she was attracted to her. But as time flew by, and they happen to meet consistently and make love to each other, and they develop
a special chaste yet emotional bonding between them. It was like a symbiotic relationship. Michael used to read her books, many books and the relationship was something he had begun to identify himself with. It was something he couldn't live without now. It sort of filled the very gaps in his own life. It was like a fantasy escape for him.
But Hanna leaves one day and the whole dream ends for young Michael. They lead their lives in a disparate fashion. Michael moves on to study law and had almost left his past behind, till one day he visits a trial being a law student. And one among the accused is Hanna. The case is of a Jewish genocide and ultimately she confesses to writing a report that could prove her guilty. This was when Michael realises that she never knew reading itself in the first place. The ulterior motive though,is not very clear, it is undoubtedly the burden of guilt that had taken toll on her.
The next part deals with how they get into touch with each other. Michael(Ralph Fiennes) finds a way to read her books-tapes.He would tirelessly record tapes of his favorite books and send it to her.Meanwhile, Hanna decides that she would learn to read, and to write. She teaches herself listening to the tapes and lookin at the books.She writes several notes to Michael. This part is the part I liked the most. It so wonderfully potrays sacrifice and bonding in a relationships sans a name, sans any meaning yet with a profound effect that it leaves behind for both.
By the time she finishes her life term, she teaches herself how to read and write.
On the day she was meant to be released, she gives away her life. A calling perhaps that an important purpose of her life, being literate was accomplished coupled with the fear or intimidation of having to face a world as a perpetrator of 300 lives.
She leaves behind some money for the lone survivor of the fire, that Michael wishes to donate by her name.
Kate Winslet's role as an illiterate woman, who has to bear the guilt and shame of being responsible in a mass murder of Jews, as a Nazi gaurd for women prisoners, is challenging but she has done full justice to it. She emanates pathos, yet exudes her human side so vividly. It is the characters more than the story that actually lures one into the movie.
For some time into the movie, it seems to be dealing with maudlin story between a guy and a woman of varying ages. But as the story unfolds, there is every relevant emotion portrayed very wonderfully weaved into the scheme of things, in the best possible and most realistic manner.
I would rate it 7.5/10.
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