Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Reader
2008
**½
Director: Stephen Daldry
Cast: Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin, Hannah Herzsprung, Karoline Herfurth, Burghart Klaussner

In the late 1950s, a 15-year-old German boy begins a passionate affair with a secretive woman more than 20 years his senior. He reads her books and they make love, but one day she disappears without a trace. Their paths cross again a few years later when he's forced to face the painful truth about her. Bernhard Schlink's wonderful novel about national and personal guilt is faithfully adapted, but on screen the story seems somewhat trashy and trivial, and it doesn't have the expected emotional impact. There are also structural problems. After the dramatic second act, the entire last third of the film feels like an ending that never ends. However, Kate Winslet is once again very good in her Oscar winning performance.