There are interesting comparisons between Stephen Daldry’s (The Hours, Billy Elliot) 2008 film, The Reader, and Lone Scherfig’s 2009 film, An Education. Both movies revolve centrally around the emotions a young person feels when they capture the allure of a much older member of the opposite sex whom they find to be sexually attractive. In An Education, it is Peter Sarsgaard’s character, David, who is wooing a young and impressionable Jenny (Carey Mulligan), influencing her so much that she is willing to sacrifice her future for him. In The Reader, it is 36-year-old streetcar conductor Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet – Titanic, Revolutionary Road) taking a liking to 16-year-old Michael Berg (David Kross in his debut performance). I would be interested in learning if An Education was filmed before or after Scherfig had watched The Reader.

The film takes place in Berlin between 1958 – 1995, though most of the plot revolves around Hanna’s actions as a guard in a World War II concentration camp. Most notable is the court case of 1966 in which Hanna is on trial with five other guards for the murder of 300 Jews who burned in a locked church under the watch of the five guards. Michael is a law student, a favorite of his current professor, who can attend the trial firsthand. Unknown to his professor or any of his classmates is the summer-long affair that a young 16-year-old Michael had with Hanna, his senior by twenty years.

Michael first meets Hanna outside of her apartment in the summer of 1958. He is sick with scarlet fever, and Hanna helps dry him off and assures him he will be okay. Some months later, Michael returns to Hanna’s apartment to thank her. It is here that Hanna seduces him, and their steamy affair begins. Michael’s parents do not know of the relationship. Michael sometimes skips school and lies to his parents to see Hanna. In between their passionate lovemaking sessions, Michael reads to Hanna. He reads her the classics, and she soaks up every word. Each day, Michael falls into a more profound love with Hanna.

Flash forward to the trial in 1966 and witness Michael seeing Hanna again for the first time since the affair ended. He is shocked to know of her previous life. During the period of the trial, she does not see Michael one time. Through the cross-examinations, Michael learns something about Hanna that might be able to help her if he opens his mouth. The Reader is a movie t filled with moral dilemmas of its central characters. One of these many dilemmas is Michael wondering if he should tell the proper people what he has learned to save Hanna as well as the implications of both of their lives depending on the decisions that he makes.

Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, The Constant Gardner) plays Michael in present-day 1995. He has a daughter and is currently going through a divorce. Because of the divorce, he knows he will see his daughter less and less. This causes him to reflect on his life and the decisions he has made. He knows he is not a terrible person, but he also knows there were situations in his life when he could have been better. Knowing that he cannot change the past, Michael has the opportunity to do right in a couple of current situations. We get a firsthand look at how Michael reasons with himself in making his decisions and the implications each of these decisions might have. Fiennes could have done a better job of acting in this movie (though he was excellent), but rather how he further develops Michael from the young man established by Kross.

Daldry did a great job directing this movie and received a Best Director Academy Award nomination. The Reader also was nominated for Best Picture. It is always challenging to direct a film that spans multiple years, so I like to acknowledge the director when they do this effectively. The way he aged Winslet’s (who herself won an Academy Award for Best Lead Actress) character from a beautiful young woman to a 65-year-old whose beauty has long since based was impressive. Tying Michael’s feelings towards Hanna based on her physical attractiveness was presented in a way that was both believable and honest. As a young man, Michael is so infatuated with Hanna that when she asks him to read to her, there is nothing in the world that he would instead do (except for what he and Hanna do right before or right after this reading period). But when he sees her some 35 years later, when she is an old woman, he resists her advances when she says, “I prefer being read to,” while touching his hand. After he pulls his hand away from her, she says, “But I guess that time has passed.” While, in itself, this seems hollow, there are plenty of backstories that suggest that there are other reasons behind his response.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 10/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 9.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 7/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
85%