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Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Bruno Ganz, Matthias Habich ... see more see more... , Susanne Lothar , Karoline Herfurth , Alexandra Maria Lara , Volker Bruch , Burghart Klau??ner , Hannah Herzsprung , Vijnessa Ferkic , Lena Olin , Jeanette Hain , Florian Bartholomäi , Friederike Becht , Alissa Wilms , Frieder Venus , Marie Anne Fliegel , Moritz Grove , Jürgen Tarrach

Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes star in The Hours director Stephen Daldry's haunting period drama concerning the relationship between a 15-year-old German boy and a mysterious woman twice his age, and ... read more read more...the way that it grows doubly complex when the man reencounters the woman years later and discovers a shocking truth about her past. Based on author Bernhard Schlink's best-selling novel of the same name, the film opens on the character of Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) in middle age -- cold, remote, and emotionally withdrawn. It then moves back in time to 1950s Berlin, where ailing teenager Michael (now played by David Kross) has fallen ill with fever, and is discovered in the street by Hanna, a woman in her thirties. After Michael recovers, the two immediately lapse into a torrid affair and Michael falls prey to the confusion of his own burgeoning sexuality. Their liaisons are often marked by Hanna's request that Michael read to her (hence the title). Later, when Michael returns to Hanna's flat and finds it deserted, her absence becomes an emotional blow for which he is completely unprepared, and indeed, scarred for life. The film then moves forward in time by eight years. Michael -- now a law student -- walks into a courtroom and comes across Hanna, one of a series of Nazi prison guards being tried for murderous war crimes during World War II. As he watches her on the witness stand, memories of their past experiences together bring him to the point of realization concerning a startling, long-buried truth about Hanna -- and Michael knows that if he divulges this information, it could modify the prison sentence handed out and dramatically alter her fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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61% liked it

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R, 2 hr. 3 min.

Directed by: Stephen Daldry

Release Date: December 10, 2008

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DVD Release Date: April 14, 2009

Stats: 14,921 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (14,921)

  • SirPant
    January 16, 2012
    SirPant
    I knew nothing about The Reader before watching and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's a very complex story when it comes to the emotional turmoil and uncomfortable human issues involved but it is told so simply it is absolutely captivating. This is also credit ... read moreto the actors who were deservedly praised on its release. The young David Kross was probably the most impressive performance in my mind. He was the glue of the film, his performance had to be more physical than Winslet's and Fiennes's, two brilliant actors who know that sometimes less is more and one expression can say a thousand words - something they both do brilliantly in this film. Three films down, Stephen Daldry is fast becoming a director you can rely on and I look forward to seeing what he does next.
  • brownman83
    July 3, 2011
    brownman83
    After long thought and decision, I have finally come to write my review on The Reader. Originally, I was about to give this film a 70% or an 80%, but when I thought about the film, something about the film was nudging me to give this film a lower rating. Later, after I thought ov... read moreer the film, I knew what that was. You'll see what that is as you read the review. But for right now, I will have to tell you how great this film is.
    The Reader is based in post-World War two, with a major part of the film being set in flashbacks during pre-World War two. Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes), is a lawyer working in Berlin. He remembers flashbacks about his teen-hood, and a certain woman, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). He remembers how he slept with her, how she became his love, and how they left each other without ever saying good-bye. Then, a few years later, he sees her again at a war-crime trial, in which she is the defendant. as the trial goes on, Michael realizes he knows something that could save Hanna Schmitz life from being imprisoned, but only one problem; Hanna doesn't want anyone to know about this. So, the story goes on (although this is 3/4ths of it), with flashbacks and memories from the present Michael Berg, and the final conclusion of it all when Michael meets Hanna one last time.
    Now, this romance-drama was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one out of the five. Its story was nothing but original, with great passes between time, and an amazing screenplay to go with. I adore this film for its unexpectedness. Most romance films are predictable, but this one had some scenes where you didn't expect what happened to happen. I actually want to read the book that this film was based on, for that's how much I liked the story. But there is only one problem with it; they overly used sex in the film. We got the picture after the first 30 minutes that Michael Berg and Hanna Schmitz made love, but no, the directors just kept on going with the sex. It was quite erotic and unnecessary. I just hope the book doesn't have as much sex as the film did.
    Next, what else made the film spectacular was Kate Winslet's performace as Hanna Schmitz. She was the person that actually gave this film a win at the Oscars. After seeing a lot of her films, I realized she never seemed to ignore those movies that get nominated or win Best Picture at the Oscars. And that's really what she deserves. David Cross also had a nice performance, but I didn't see much of Ralph Fiennes, so I cant's say anything about him. Otherwise, the acting was superb.
    I also liked the Stephen Daldry's directing. He added a special flare to the film which I liked. The cinematography was also nice, considering that not ALL of the good camera shots were focused on the sex scenes.
    Now, here is where I tell you the big con of this film which made it lose 10%, probably 20% of this film's ratings. As I watched the film, I realized something toward close to the end of the movie. After all the romance, drama, and joy in the film, I thought just one thing; that this was some sort of illiterate awareness film. Not that I have anything wrong with supporting literacy, but I mean, after all of the brilliance of this film, you come across one scene which changes the whole perspective of the film. What I thought to be the best romance of 2008 became a campaign to support people who can't read. I don't like those kinds of things popping up in my film, as I believe many others do not as well.
    The film was also quite slow at parts, making it a bit boring to watch. It also had unnecessary scenes, just wasting time to, as to what I believe is to show off the score. The score, was actually, indeed brilliant (for I believe it deserved an Oscar nomination), but it kind of got annoying at times when it was the only thing entertaining you during the film. At one point I was wishing that the score for this film would just shut-the-heck-up, even though I loved it.
    Other than the cons within it, this film is one to remember. It's kind, original, sad, happy, and mostly, moving. I don't plan on watching it soon again, but I can tell you, I'm going to give this roller coaster (although the most appropriate term would be "ferris wheel") another ride.


    If you are still confused as to why I gave this film the rating it got, please visit this link below:

    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/935623/blogs/?id=703501
  • danperry17
    June 27, 2011
    danperry17
    Bernhard Schlink's erotic and economical novel comes to life on the screen, and overall, it's well done. The book is so compactly written, I had to ask myself, how can they get two hours of film out of it? The short answer: music. Leaving aside Kate Winslet's (deserving) Oscar-wi... read morenning performance for a second, the score of the film carried it through the gaps in time and the silences between the characters keeping secrets from each other. I thought the casting for Michael was a bit off - too old for the young lead, too young to be a college student later - and it was a bit off-putting that the climax came earlier in the film (about halfway) than in the book (three-quarters). But in the end, this isn't about comparing the book to the movie. The film stands well on its own, and though it will seem a little slow to those who have not read the book, the score and the acting will leave you much more happy than not.
  • Deano78
    April 3, 2011
    Deano78
    A fine example of great actors, Winslet won an Oscar for this film telling a sad love story. The film has two different halves. The first with an impressive performance by David Kross as a teenage boy who begins an affair one summer with a much older woman. The couple appear nake... read mored for much of the first half of the film as the couple spend their time either reading or making love. The second half of the film is set a good few years later as their paths cross again at a war crimes trial. For me quite a few things in the film don't have much of a back story or make a lot of sense. For me the end of the film didn't have a satisfying conclusion and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. A sad story of two lonely lives and the impact they had on each other.
  • DreamExtractor
    February 27, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    It was so good and weird it was hard not to stop watching
  • Saxia
    February 21, 2011
    Saxia
    I really enjoyed this one, especially because I wasn't expecting the direction it was going, at all.

    Kate Winslet is a very expressive and versatile actress, and definitely one of my favorites.
    ... read morenslet-in-the-reader-11554980">
  • gatorgirl13
    October 27, 2010
    gatorgirl13
    This movie has a lot of emotion behind it. It's not necessarily a happy movie, but it is moving and the storyline is very interesting. Kate Winslet, as always, is magnificent.
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    October 23, 2010
    TheDudeLebowski65
    I thought The Reader was a very twisted film. If you know the plot of the film, you'll know why I say it's twisted. I'm not saying the film bad, it's excellent and terrific. The story is very interesting and the cast is great, but the plot is messed up.What I mean is that the fil... read morem is not confusing, but the plot is wow. a Young man one summer has an affair with a woman, who years later encounters in court hearing where she is being judged for being part of the SS during the Second World War. I thought that was messed up, but very interesting thing at the same. I don't view The Reader as a chick flick, because it dwells on a dark subject, and it's too dark to be just another story. Really, the affair in the film was strong for one summer, thats it. The thing I loved about The Reader was that it took a completely different direction than any other "love story" at first I thought it was going to be justa typical cliched love story. Boy was I wrong. This film combines elements of love story, but it doesn't long, it's more a fling than anything. The second half of the film is a well structured, courtroom thriller with drama and suspense. The Reader is a terrific film with a solid story, a great cast of actors and great directing. I always enjoy Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet gives the performance of her career. She's come a long way since her days of Titanic, she's truly matured as an actress. The Reader is a refreshing drama and it will surprise the skeptics that think its just another love story. The film is strongly acted and despite it being slow, the story is so intriguing that you don't care that the film sort of drags on a bit. Also some reviews have pointed out that the film they tried to make the film to make Hanna Schmitz look sympathetic and the victim. I felt nothing for that character, no sympathy or empathy. I didn't think the film was about making Schmitz the victim, I though it more about showing her as a criminal, and thats what the film is about. People who think that Schmitz is the victim don't get the point of the film, I though Ralph Fiennes character was the victim because Schmitz played him like a fool, and lied to him throughout the film. The films takes an unbiased point of view on both main characters which I think is important.
  • binky013
    October 16, 2010
    binky013
    The only thing I hate about this movie -- and I mean HATE -- is seeing Kate Winslet play the heavy. It makes me ill in all kinds of ways, but it's also a tribute to her acting ability. Fortunately, I didn't realize how bad it was going to be until I, just as David Kross does, d... read moreiscovered what Winslet had done until it unfolds in the courtroom.

    But then, of course, this discovery colors, in retrospect, the whole movie from the beginning, and while the discovery doesn't destroy my life as it pretty much does the life of Kross-Fiennes, it certainly makes me very uncomfortable and, yes, guilty, for feeling so sorry for her as the illiterate and somehow damaged woman I was viewing her as up to the trial.

    This movie, for me, was extremely unpredictable, and it really does make me ill to think of Winslet playing a participant in the perpetration, the execution of the Holocaust.

    And lest I -- or anyone else seeing this story -- begin to feel sorry for yet another person who was just doing her/his job -- it's good to hear Lena Olin lay it out for Fiennes in such an unapologetic and matter-of-fact way at the end. To quote Olin:

    "People ask all the time what I learned in the camps. But the camps weren't therapy. What do you think these places were? Universities? We didn't go there to learn. One becomes very clear about these things. What are you asking for? Forgiveness for her? Or do you just want to feel better yourself? My advice, go to the theater, if you want catharsis. Please. Go to literature. Don't go to the camps. Nothing comes out of the camps. Nothing."

    That about sums it up for us and for the man who cannot really ever come to grips with the idea that the love of his life was an enabling participant -- albeit only seeing herself as doing her job - -in carrying out one of the greatest evils perpetrated in the history of humankind.

    Yes, doing her job: "We were responsible for them!" Another shocking moment. Winslet means responsible in the sense of "if we let them out of the church, they might have run away" versus the kind of responsibility which most of us, I hope, would assume in throwing open the doors so these women and children could escape being burned to death.

    That horrible realization of Winslet being yet one more of these I-was-only-doing-my-job types, I'll assume Fiennes will never be able to recover from, and neither will anyone who sees this movie if you felt something along the lines of pity for the Winslet character up until the trial.

    Her final get-together with Fiennes is brilliantly startling as well. Compare that conversation about learning with the Olin one. Fiennes asks Winslet if she's learned anything during her twenty years in prison: "Sure, Kid, I learned how to read." Absolutely chilling. It's like another dagger in Fiennes' and the audience's heart.

    Harking back to my youth, I seem to recall that one aspect of catharsis, in the ancient sense, would involve witnessing actors playing at a tragic event which, at minimum, would allow the audience to be better able to deal with their own life struggles, knowing that their problems at least were nowhere near as horrific as those they'd seen portrayed on stage -- such as someone killing his father and then marrying his mother. To that extent, I think this movie may provide catharsis for some. It would be horrible, I think, to be in Fiennes shoes, and we can all thank whatever powers that be that we're not in a similar situation --

    Except what's odd is that I, an audience member, so associate myself with Fiennes because I am drawn to the Winslet character as well -- before I, like Fiennes, find out Winslet's true story -- that if anything, I am also ensnared in the same tragic trap which I cannot escape either. There can be no purging for me. No catharsis. And that must be due to brilliant directorial and authorial manipulation of the audience. Not to mention that Kate Winslet is one astonishing actor who is able to suck me in like that.
  • itsjustme2004
    October 14, 2010
    itsjustme2004
    This was a really good movie. Slow moving sometimes, but it definitely kept me enthralled. I have always loved a really good drama, and this one didn't disappoint me. I am REALLY amazed that Ralph Fiennes wasn't nominated for any awards, just Kate Winslet it seems. He did just as... read more fine a job.

View All The Reader Reviews

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy
July 6, 2010
Todd McCarthy, Variety

Stephen Daldry's film is sensitively realized and dramatically absorbing, but comes across as an essentially cerebral experience without gut impact. Full Review

Kristin Tillotson
April 8, 2009
Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune

If Winslet carries the complex psychological intrigue of the film on her shoulders, David Kross carries the heart of it on his. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
December 30, 2008
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

The trial's outcome leads us into a third act that continues to give renewed, rending meaning to the movie's title. Full Review

Michael Granberry
December 30, 2008
Michael Granberry, Dallas Morning News

The Reader is a bold and provocative film and one of the most exquisite of 2008. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
December 29, 2008
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

As undeniably tasteful as The Reader is, it's also an absorbing and finally moving account of how one man comes to terms with both history and his story. Full Review

Cole Haddon
December 25, 2008
Cole Haddon, Film.com

The Reader is a dull slog of a movie gussied up by two Oscar-nominated actors -- Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. If not for them, as well as an impressive performance by virtual newcomer David Kross, ... Full Review

J. R. Jones
December 25, 2008
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Surrounding the Holocaust morality play is another story that's more modestly scaled and, in this age of unashamed romance between older women and younger men, more contemporary. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
December 24, 2008
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

With this film Daldry proves himself the screen's reigning master at showing passion thwarted or repressed, this time to a propulsive Philip Glass-lite score from Nico Muhly. Full Review

Tom Long
December 24, 2008
Tom Long, Detroit News

At times The Reader is an interesting exploration of both the needs of man and the limits of law. But there are so many dead spots in the film after it gets rolling that the rolling too often comes to... Full Review

Roger Ebert
December 24, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I believe the movie may be demonstrating a fact of human nature: Most people, most of the time, all over the world, choose to go along. We vote with the tribe. Full Review

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    • Hanna Schmitz: You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.
    • Michael Berg: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.
    • Hanna Schmitz: It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead.
    • Michael Berg: I can't live without you. The thought of leaving you kills me. Do you love me?
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