MOVIE REVIEW - Reader, The (2008)

The first third of The Reader is set in post-WWII Germany and is a tawdry tale of a 30-ish woman having an affair with a 15 year old kid. Ick beyond my ability to express. Kate Winslet doesn't act. She just shows her boobs and frowns. And frowns. And frowns. She has the exact same expression (a tight frown) whether showing anger or sadness or ecstasy or stubbornness. The kid is a newcomer, with only slightly better acting than Kate's frowns. For far too long, the movie drags, with only their affair as the plot, and with a strange and contrived plot devise that Kate likes being read to more than anything else in the affair. It ruins no plot point to say that she is illiterate, as this "surprise" is made painfully obvious during their affair. Kate ends the affair one day by vanishing. The kid goes to law school and gets involved in a trial of Nazi concentration camp guards (women), and one of the defendants is - surprise - Kate. Once the trial starts, the movie picks up a bit - though Kate continues her tight frown as though this is the pinnacle of acting (hey, Meryl holds the same single expression in Doubt, so why not Kate here - Oscar worthy!). Ralph Fiennes is typical, dull, Ralph as the kid in later years. I did love Lena Olin's small role - a gorgeous woman who has aged very well and knows how to hold the camera. But mostly, this dreary story doesn't warrant the acclaim, and certainly not a Best Picture/Actress nod.