A movie that's never bad but too easy to forget by the time you move on to the next book on your list of cinematic adaptations.
Comment
12/25/08
The Reader (2008)
62
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:180
Fresh:111
Rotten:69
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Despite Kate Winslet's superb portrayal, The Reader suggests an emotionally distant, Oscar-baiting historical drama.
Theatrical Release:Dec 10, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $34,111,418
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
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Reviews for The Reader
If the first half of The Reader is erotic and sensual, with naked bodies in various states of repose and impassioned lovemaking, the second half becomes increasingly antiseptic, an exercise in philosophy and morality and guilt.
12/25/08
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12/25/08
There is a sense of ambiguity at the core of The Reader that makes it all the more brutal, all the more honest in its deflowering of love and what one imagines love ought to be instead of what it too often is.
12/25/08
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.
12/25/08
A film that features an admittedly extraordinary performance from Kate Winslet surrounded by a lot of other stuff that doesn't work nearly as well as it should have.
12/25/08
Best evidence of what a magnetic presence Kate Winslet is: When her role diminishes in the second half of The Reader, the movie disintegrates.
12/24/08
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.
12/24/08
Top CriticWinslet's been justly praised for her work here, but her contribution is mostly confined to the first half of The Reader.
12/24/08
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 a stop.
12/24/08
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.
12/24/08
Top CriticAfter a sensuous introductory act, The Reader descends into a series of dismaying contradictions regarding the moral toxins of the Holocaust -- which still pollute postwar Germany.
12/24/08
Top CriticWinslet is outstanding, particularly given that Hanna is such an unsympathetic character. We never quite feel sympathy toward her, and it's testament to Winslet's skill and confidence that she never really asks us to.
12/24/08
Told, coolly...the novel was hugely popular as well as controversial worldwide and an Oprah's Book Club selection besides. I'm afraid it needed a different set of interpreters to make any emotional sense of it onscreen.
12/24/08
Top CriticMoviegoers may find themselves unable to dismiss the film outright, but also unable to put a finger on what the movie is really about, or how it should have been about it.
12/23/08
The Reader, distant though it can be, touches and provokes a mulling over of the Holocaust like few films on the subject in recent memory.
12/23/08
Intelligent and impeccably crafted but...also rather remote and chilly, the kind of film in which craft trumps heart...ultimately fails to do emotional justice to the subject it tackles.
12/22/08
[The Reader] is positively goyish in its glassy eyed treatment of Jew killing, not that it aims to be anything more than an exercise in moral insurrection.
12/22/08
Literature as aphrodisiac - merits the attention of discerning audiences who will also want to see it for Winslet's nuanced, sensual performance.
12/21/08
Whatever legitimacy the story once had must have been lost in translation, because what appears on the screen is a cold, artless lump.
12/21/08
Latest News for The Reader
April 13, 2009:
RT on DVD: Frank Miller Talks The Spirit, Michel Gondry Releases New Music Video DVD
It's a light week for home video entertainment, but never fear -- RT on DVD is here! We'll kick things off with the biggest title of the week: Frank Miller's The Spirit, which... More...
February 24, 2009:
Backstage at the Oscars: My First Time
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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