Saturday 20 June 2009

The Reader [* * * * * *]


This is a story about a young boy who falls in love with an older woman (oh yeah!:) and how his life is never the same again. Gosh anything I say about it will be a spoiler - it's such a wonderful movie that it deserves the Oscar it got for best picture.

Kate Winslet is an older woman in prewar germany. She helps a young guy in a matter-of-decency way when he's coming down with scarlet fever. He goes back looking for her when he recovers and is fascinated by her. She has sex with him for his reading skills. It's a lovely romance which really draws you in - a different kind, one that's tender and temperamental with a lot of role-reversal.

One day she walks out on him, when she's given a promotion. The next he sees her is at a Nuremberg trial for being an SS security guard at Auchwitz. It's a nailbiting trial - her honesty vs. the system and history. A very real dilemma that the germans probably went through individually - the guilt, shame and horror of being on the wrong side.

She's sentenced to a life in prison and he tries to go on with his life, failing miserably. Years later, locked in his shell, he begins to reach out to her by reading stories into tapes and sending them to her in prison.

I think I laughed, cried, was shocked, guilty, fascinated and transfixed by their hot, real romance. It's a must-see!

1 comment:

venkhat said...

I wont see that movie, what ever it shows will spoil the words u have made for it, u have been touched and it shows.
Can one really have all those emotions seeing a movie, u have extra senses, and it has some connections to the types.