It tries for depth while holding your hand and glossing its surface; in the end, you get what you'd expect, which is a decent Holocaust-related drama, and not much more.
Comment
12/19/08
The Reader (2008)
62
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:179
Fresh:111
Rotten:68
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Despite Kate Winslet's superb portrayal, The Reader suggests an emotionally distant, Oscar-baiting historical drama.
Theatrical Release:02-01-2009
Synopsis: Though THE READER may boast the typical pedigree of a Holocaust film--acclaimed actors, a literary source, and an Oscar-baiting end-of-the-year release date--this drama has a significant... [More]
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Anthony Minghella
Director: Stephen Daldry
Reviews for The Reader
121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
The Reader is a cloaked male fantasy, in which a milf hides under spinster garb -- all for a 16-year-old's delight.
12/15/08
It appears that the filmmakers have taken Hannah Arendt’s notion of the 'banality of evil' way too literally.
12/15/08
Call me a prude, but soft-core porn doesn't seem a fitting entry point for considering the Holocaust's agonies.
12/14/08
Scripter David Hare's adaptation is so beautifully crafted, it makes me want to read the book.
12/14/08
More of a coming-of-age film than historical drama, with strong performances from Winslet and Kross.
12/13/08
A triumphant performance by Kate Winslet anchors the year's most disturbing Holocaust movie.
12/12/08
The movie adaptation by screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry starts out choppy and overdrawn but develops a cumulative power.
12/12/08
The film offers no facile answers, only quietly forceful performances (particularly by Winslet, whose tense body language speaks volumes) that make these characters and the tragedy that colors their lives seem achingly, crushingly real.
12/12/08
The Reader remains schematic, and ultimately reductive. It really is about literacy, which proves to be a dismayingly small answer to the enormous questions posed by Hanna's dark past.
12/12/08
Like a good book with missing pages, The Reader seems stripped of essential meaning.
12/12/08
There's something gripping about the relationship between this ill-assorted pair, and something touching about the way events beyond their control or understanding reach out to blight their lives.
12/12/08
Top CriticA film made with high aspirations and more than the usual commitment but one that, after an arresting beginning, changes into a passive rumination.
12/12/08
Some are groaning about the plethora of WWII movies this Oscar season, but The Reader is about the complexity of German guilt because of the Holocaust and its aftermath.
12/12/08
The Reader isn't an act of moral imbecility like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but it's pretty questionable all the way through.
12/12/08
One egregious case of miscasting (Ralph Fiennes as the adult version of our young, blond German boy), makes The Reader a rather slow-moving film in search of what it wants to say.
12/12/08
This is a film which asks us to contemplate the deeply complicated relationship between rational thought and instinctual feeling via a perverse intermingling of global horror and very, very local pain.
12/12/08
The Reader hasn't been flawlessly adapted from the page, but the film is sure to inspire just as much debate as its source. Winslet's Hannah Schmitz is unforgettable.
12/12/08
Without [Kate] Winslet, The Reader would be just another literary adaptation that got high on its own self-importance.
12/12/08
(E)verything Schlink was trying to accomplish with his (book) is cast aside for more shots of Kate Winslet naked.
12/12/08
Latest News for The Reader
April 13, 2009:
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February 24, 2009:
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In the movie world there is no event greater, no red carpet glitzier, no awards show more meaningful, than that of the Academy Awards. While millions watch the biggest night... More...
February 17, 2009:
RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
In bringing the best-selling German novel The Reader to the big screen, director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) had more than a few hurdles to overcome -- breaks in... More...
February 13, 2009:
Debating the Merits of The Reader
When you read the list of Best Picture nominations for this year's Academy Awards and saw "The Reader" nestled in between "Slumdog Millionare" and "Milk," were you surprised?... More...
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