Synopsis:
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 Freak's
Rating: C+ : Whenever Oscar nominees
are announced, there are always a number of
acting heavy films. These aren't exactly
the best films of the year, nor the most
entertaining, but they showcase amazing acting
ability. Acting often elevates films into
categories in which they don't belong; sometimes
shoving them as high (in this case) as the Best
Picture category.
The
Reader is an interesting story, but one that
loses most of its audience only minutes in and
struggles to get them back. Chemistry
necessary to ignite the love affair in the first
act of the film is lacking immensely.
David Kross is forgettable as the male side of
the relationship, Micheal Berg. There is
little to explain the attraction these two feel
for each other from the start of the story and
it takes nearly 20 minutes to seem close to
genuine. Along with poor development of
the relationship's early stages, the writing
inexplicably ommits certain elements of the
story (such as why Micheal would himself abandon
his "love" at a critical stage of her life).
This
film is a showcase of Winslet's acting ability,
without question. She is great as Hanna
Schmitz, but she's been better. Eternal
Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Revolutionary
Road and Little Children all should have won
Oscars for her long before this film.
Ralph Fiennes is solid as grown up Micheal Berg
and the moments between the two eclipse the
younger Berg's inadequate scenes, allowing the
third act of the film to solidify this as one of
her best performances.
It is
frustrating when people make stupid decisions
for unknown reasons and hard to recognize that
as artistically pleasing in a cinematic venue.
Tragedy is one of the major aspects of cinema,
but ignorance leading to tragedy isn't enough to
strongly represent the category. Because
of a few moments where you want to simply grab
ahold of and shake sense into characters, the
film is one that I can't see myself ever
watching again. Direction and
cinematography are both decent, but nothing
outstanding. Winslet's performance will
garner a larger audience for the film as well,
I'm just guessing that the bulk of America will
agree with me on the film's lack of
entertainment. If you truly wish to see a
film that showcases superb acting and is also an
extremely entertaining film, skip The Reader and
theater hop to Doubt.
Brian's Rating: C
: I agree with all Scott's points on this.
The film lacks entertainment, and it has that
deficiency due to failing to make the viewer
care at all in the first 20 minutes for the
characters embroiled in a clandestine love
affair. As Scott stated, the young Michael Berg
actor did nothing to make you believe in an
unbelievable romance. It was unexplained,
implausible, and was supposed to set the stage
for the rest of the movie which is really about
his life being destroyed due to the life long
effects of statutory rape.
All I can make sense of is that the romance was
never really sold because it never really
existed except for in his mind. Later in the
movie it becomes more apparent that she was
using him, and so perhaps the blase entry into
this film was done on purpose to reflect this.
In any case, the movie just did not press the
right buttons for me. Parts of it were well
done, and some of the acting was superb so it
was not a waste of time. However its nothing I
would urge anybody to see.
click here to review
it yourself!
