The Reader

This caught me by surprise. HBO Max’s movie summary mentioned a love affair and a Nazi war crimes trial, but doesn’t go into much detail beyond it. It doesn’t mention how the first 45 minutes or so are a passionate love affair between Michael, a 15 year old boy, and Hanna, a 38 year old woman. It lulls you in with a weirdly romantic if definitely questionable love story between this starry-eyed young man and a desperate, lonely woman. When she abruptly leaves his life and town, you’re wondering where this is going. And then it time jumps to him in law school eight years later, and as part of a class exercise, he’s taken to the war crime strial of six female SS guards from Auschwitz, and Hanna is one of them, and his world is thrown back into a tailspin. Clearly, Hanna is a human being with, at best, a broken moral compass, and at worst, no concept of boundaries. She is an unreliable narrator as well, as she clearly lies at her trial, putting everything she says into question. But her lie is also because she is ashamed of her illiteracy. Is her story of joining the SS because it was a paying job true? Does she regret her actions, or does she know showing regret won’t change anything? Kate Winslet plays it very cagey, giving you the viewer the option of viewing it any way you like. She could be an unfeeling, unrepentant monster, or she could’ve been in a terrible position and had to make terrible choices. Either could be true, and he portrayal is why you can see it either way. On the other side is Michael, the boy whose life is thrown into a hurricane because of Hanna. His affair with her disrupts his home and social life. Seeing her again years later rips open old wounds, and he never seems to be able to fully get over her. There’s a hint that maybe his love for Hanna destroyed his marriage, and maybe caused him to isolate to the point of alienating himself from his daughter. It’s not a fun time movie, though. It’s relentlessly heavy, even during the love affair. It’s not something you walk away from going “great night at the movies!”. It was a very well done movie, but not a pleasant movie. So, go in knowing after this Netflix, there will be no chill. More likely a thoughtful rumination on humanity.