Oscar Review: The Reader

To give you more frequent blogging, I've decided to give off and on movie reviews. And since the Oscars are this upcoming Sunday, I decided I'd review all the 5 Best Picture nominees. I'll go in order of worst to first, not in the order I think is going to win, but in order of quality. I'll grade it with the letter system, rather than stars or numbers, since I think it gives a better idea of what I actually think of the movie than the star system. Here we go.

The Reader
The Players: Directed by Stephen Daldry, Starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross
Also Nominated For: Best Director, Best Actress (Winslet), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography
Plot: Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

The Review: Since this is first, you know that I like it the least of the Best Pic nominees, not to mention about 10 other films that were better. But all bias aside, The Reader is a film that is driven by Kate Winslet as much as someone can drive this plot. Ralph Fiennes was pretty good, as just isn't enough to save the film. I know it's not the point or the intention of the movie, to cast itself in a "Nazi-sympathizing" light, but to me, it comes dangerously close. There are many other problems with the film that are problematic. For one, the statutory rape relationship with Winslet and Kross is neither believable, nor is it tolerable. I didn't believe it in the least bit, especially in the eyes of Winslet. Hey, there's no doubt that Winslet is an unbelievable actress that does a pretty good job in this film. But her partner, the young German David Kross, only learned English to star in this film. That's impressive. But where The Reader goes wrong is that it has no real end-game. Who wants to see another Holocaust movie, especially when we are supposed to sympathize with a death camp guard? Come on. I'm supposed to feel bad for Winslet in this movie because she can't read? It doesn't take literacy to burn a few hundred people to death or choose 10 women a week to be killed. I know this movie was rushed through editing and post-production to get a release date that would this eligible for the Oscar. Well, it worked, but I don't think any more time on the film would have made it better. It is a bleak, depressing film without a point. Is the point that a whole generation of Germans that were there for the Holocaust but didn't do anything and now they have to live with it? Because if it is, Winslet's character is not one of those people and even those that are deserve no sympathy. The movie tries to brighten up the scenes in concentration camps, make Winslet look all pretty, and tries to do what the rest of Germany wants you to do: forget the Holocaust. The movie's whole message is vague, if there is one, and I personally did not sympathize with one character, besides maybe Ralph Fiennes, whose depressing manner throughout seems appropriate for what he went through. Other than that, the film is well shot, but should it be? If you're going to make a film about this subject, make it bleak. Does this film deserve ANY of it's nominations? I'm not sure, but one thing I can see is this: someone at the Academy really, really like this film and I'd like his review, so I can understand what was so good about this movie.

Grade: D+

If you like The Reader, you should see....Schindler's List (a REAL Holocaust movie)