Posted on 03/09/2009 11:58:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We just got around to seeing "The Reader" this weekend (warning: plot spoilers below). I don't think I've ever seen a movie that I felt ruined my weekend. This was a first for me.
If only there were an Oscar for worst excuse for sex in a film, "The Reader" could have garnered the Oscar it deserved. As it was, Kate Winslet won the best actress award for her sympathetic potrayal of an Auschwitz camp guard in the film.
The first hour of the film is devoted to a graphic portrayal of the postwar affair between Winslet's character Hanna Schmitz and the teenage high school boy whom she makes her lover. Why the need to see Kate Winslet naked and simulating sex? I think it has something to do with the filmmakers' desire to create an irresistible box-office combination of pornography yoked with a high-minded view of the Holocaust.
Ron Rosenbaum dispenses justice of a sort in his condemnation of "The Reader." Rosenbaum rightly objects to the portrayal of an Auschwitz camp guard as an innocent victim of the Holocaust. Any decent person who understands what is going on would be disgusted by the film several times over.
One cause for disgust not mentioned by Rosenbaum is the contrast drawn between Hanna Schmitz and a surviving victim of her mass murder (leaving 300 Jews locked in a burning church). At the end of the film, Schmitz has served 20 years in a West German prison for her crime. She is about to be released, but chooses this moment to hang herself in her cell.
The filmmakers exercise great tact regarding the scene of Schmitz's death. They only show Winslet stacking up her books on the floor in order to hang herself. When it comes to depicting Winselt dying the filmmakers are far more reserved than when depicting Winslet naked. Such taste! This is art.
The scene cuts from Schmitz's shabby cell to a luxury apartment in the United States. Schmitz's now adult ex-lover delivers the money saved by Schmitz in prison to the survivor who testified against her at her trial. The stark contrast drawn by the film between the survivor living in luxury and the former Auschwitz guard living modestly in prison (teaching herself to read) represents a vicious fantasy that by itself captures the revolting animus of the film.
I am scratchinng my head at the concerted effort to belttle, condemn, mock, and marginalise this film. I have seen all of this years majors, Milk, Slumdog, etc. The Reader is the only movie which was at least worth the time spent watching.
That made me laugh out loud. Great find!
I admit to falling asleep watching Slumdog. But I’ve been assured by those who endured for the “Bollywood” dance ending, that I was fortunate.
Point well taken.
FWIW, the best movie that I saw last year was a tiny film call "In Bruges". It's probably not for everyone, but for me it really worked.
It's a character study that's focused on two assassins that need to lay low for a while. Bruges it's self becomes a character all it's own. The dialogue is interesting, Colin Ferrel gives his best performance yet, and Ralph Fienes and Brendan Gleeson both should have been nominated in supporting roles.
Here's the best part - no politics in any way. It does what movies do best; It explores the complexities and frailties of the human condition.
I’ve only seen “Sense and Sensibility” and “Eternal Sunshine...”
In both of those she was excellent. Just from seeing those two performances I could tell she was better than most current actresses.
With her talent she shouldn’t demean herself by unclothing in movies (or magazines for that matter).
May I preemptively recommend the Director's Cut? Haven't seen the movie, but in my limited experience, there tends to be more nekkids in it.
Just an FYI.
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