The Reader

The Reader was a hell of a movie to kick off my cinematic adventures for 2009. A riveting storyline combined with masterful performances by Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet and David Kross made this movie a thoroughly thrilling experience and well-worth it's $39 ticket price ($22 cab, $7 night rider, $10 ticket).

It's got universal themes like truth and love, but more importantly literacy and morality. Various questions popped into my mind throughout the movie. It made me think of the things I took for granted like peace and the ability to read. I really applaud Kross for his bravery as well as Winslet's incredible screen presence.

The one thing that I really appreciated the most was their honesty in their portrayal of the characters. They made it look easy, obviously because of how much effort they've put into bringing them to life. The performances were stellar. Every frame on them portrayed mixed, layered emotions. The script was successful in its economical dialogue and also because of how much was being shown when there wasn't any talking.

My favourite moments and they were quite a few but for the sake of fairness I'll name one from each of the leads - Kross when he was displaying faith, honesty and innocence one feels with first love, Winslet's eyes spoks volumes when her character decided with great determination to learn how to read and Fiennes devotion to creating the tapes in reminiscence of the past.

I held my breath at various parts of the movie, covered my face in others and yet in other scenes, heard a couple of sobs in the cinema. I could relate to how they felt and their decisions to the situations that I, they, faced, which made me think of my own.

A small bit of trivia - Sydney Pollack was a producer of the movie and he passed away last year, before the completion of the movie. Incidentally he directed Tootsie in 1982, a film which I'm studying now for one of my film modules. The man's done great work. I think I'll look up the other stuff he's made and watch them some time.

Rating: 5/5