Running time: 123 minutes
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, Susanne Lothar
Rating 7 out of 10
After their worldwide success with 2002's The Hours, director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare have reunited for The Reader, based on the bestselling German novel by Bernard Schlink. It's a film which deals with events in modern German history in a cryptic manner, unlike the rather more straightforward German attempts at introspection of recent times (Downfall, The Lives of Others, The Baader-Meinhof Complex).
As with The Hours, Hare's screenplay shifts unexpectedly and spasmodically in time, forcing the audience to work and throwing in one or two big surprises. While it's engrossing to watch however, one cannot help feeling that the final product is rather less than the sum of its parts.
The Weinstein Company have produced a typical marketing campaign, with posters that pitch this as an uplifting love story between Ralph Fiennes and a porcelain-skinned Kate Winslet. It's just about possible that some people may find it uplifting, but most are likely to find it a gloomy affair. Winslet is as impressive as always but stripped of her natural beauty to play Hanna Schmitz, a dowdy bus conductor in post-war Germany who strikes up a relationship with a young man named Michael (a thoroughly convincing David Kross).
It's an affair that will have huge consequences on both of their lives, and as Hare skips about in time in his screenplay, clues and answers are revealed. The central theme of reading and literacy is cleverly dealt with and in the starring roles Fiennes, Winslet and Kross are all memorable.
They are aided by a stellar supporting cast, including strong turns from Bruno Ganz (who played Hitler in Downfall) and Lena Olin, who has been absent from the big screen for far too long. It's clearly a film pitched at the awards season, but will perhaps be eclipsed by a few other of the year's releases. The film is produced by Anthony Minghella and Sidney Pollack, whose untimely deaths occurred before the end of production.
Paul Hurley
As with The Hours, Hare's screenplay shifts unexpectedly and spasmodically in time, forcing the audience to work and throwing in one or two big surprises. While it's engrossing to watch however, one cannot help feeling that the final product is rather less than the sum of its parts.
The Weinstein Company have produced a typical marketing campaign, with posters that pitch this as an uplifting love story between Ralph Fiennes and a porcelain-skinned Kate Winslet. It's just about possible that some people may find it uplifting, but most are likely to find it a gloomy affair. Winslet is as impressive as always but stripped of her natural beauty to play Hanna Schmitz, a dowdy bus conductor in post-war Germany who strikes up a relationship with a young man named Michael (a thoroughly convincing David Kross).
It's an affair that will have huge consequences on both of their lives, and as Hare skips about in time in his screenplay, clues and answers are revealed. The central theme of reading and literacy is cleverly dealt with and in the starring roles Fiennes, Winslet and Kross are all memorable.
They are aided by a stellar supporting cast, including strong turns from Bruno Ganz (who played Hitler in Downfall) and Lena Olin, who has been absent from the big screen for far too long. It's clearly a film pitched at the awards season, but will perhaps be eclipsed by a few other of the year's releases. The film is produced by Anthony Minghella and Sidney Pollack, whose untimely deaths occurred before the end of production.
Paul Hurley
