[movie reaction] The Reader
This is not a coherent review. This is my reaction to having just watched The Reader, starring Kate Winslet, David Kross, and Ralph Fiennes.
- Oh, oh. This hurt. I did not, as I am usually persuaded to, burst into tears during the course of the movie, but I cried a little at the end from the sheer frustration and release that I felt. This is a difficult movie. A difficult, painful movie where everyone loses and you're morally outraged and then you're horrified because you're morally outraged.
- I love the dichotomy that is Michael's life. He is a wonderful storyteller with an entrancing voice (be he Kross or Fiennes). Yet, though he reads of Homer, of Chekhov, of Goethe, he cannot tell his own story, he cannot let it go out of his throat, and he lives like this throughout his entire life. It wasn't until the scene where Michael (Fiennes) is in the room of the woman who had been a girl in the concentration camp - Ilana Mather (Lena Olin) - that I realized that this was one of the running themes of the movie, which is, yeah, sort of a "duh" thing, but it actually made the air stick in my throat when I realized. It's the painful, painful irony of his life. And that the only person he can find the ability to speak to is his daughter? It was so perfect and so painful and Michael DDDDDD:
- Also, may I admit how much I love the elder Ilana? All the actors and actresses gave amazing performances during the entire movie, but those five or so minutes where she is on-screen? God.
- And Kate Winslet. I watched this movie, admittedly, because she won Best Actress and I wanted to know why. At first, I didn't understand; her performance did not seem like anything special, and I was actually afraid that part of the reason that she was nominated for Best Actress was because she could do really good sex scenes (which, y'know, seems to be a qualifier for Best Actress in many cases and pisses me off beyond all thought but this is not the place). This shows how much I know because as more of the plot and the details were revealed? Everything she did, every single reaction of hers, made so much more sense. When she is in the church and you cannot tell if she's feeling heart-wrenching grief or guilt or joy (of the music) or some combination of the three - my heart. And the moment you realize her secret in the courtroom -- what are you supposed to do?
- Which brings me to this point, the big "morality" discussion. I loved the courtroom scenes because they caused so much complex emotion. I found myself simultaneously horrified and... I guess the phrase would be "defensive"? What I mean is that I honestly liked Hanna; she was a complex character who seemed very lost. She did not bullshit the answers she gave the court; she told the truth, but at the same time she was confused about people's horror, and her reaction in itself was horrifying. Her rather state-of-the-fact way of explaining that "when new ones arrived, old ones must go" made me gape, but so did her question of "What would you expect me to do? What would you do?" make me think. Because what would I have done? What did the German people do? The law student who afterward berated the entire case, that these six women were on trial only because of a book when there were thousands of concentration camps, made me wonder: if that book had never come out, it seemed unlikely that these former SS women would have had a trial of this magnitude. However, just because they only had this trial because of a book, does that mean they should not have had a trial at all? Or one so harsh? Because these women were guilty of sending people to their deaths, of keeping them locked in a church. And god, the scenes where you realize that Michael is never going to say anything about the illiteracy to the court -- my mouth went so sour. God, look at me. I felt outraged on behalf of Hanna because she did not deserve that particular final outcome. Or perhaps I was more outraged that the other women got away with what they did? That they were able to transfer their guilt to such an easy scapegoat. But I had to keep reminding myself: all of those women, Hanna included, were SS guards. They sent people to their deaths for no other reason than "they were ordered to." How does one have a moral standpoint in that? How does one choose how relative one's role is in something like genocide? Ilana said that "nothing came out of the camps." Nothing.
- On a very different note: Kate Winslet with white hair is haunting. Her eyes have this pale green color that is completely piercing.