The Reader

The Reader
Director: Stephen Daldry 

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet, David Kross
Rated: R

Based upon the book Der Voleser by Bernhard Schlink, the reader moves like a book.  The chronology moves from pre-WWII, to 1966, and then throughout the 80's a little bit.  Kate Winslet has already won a Golden Globe for her performance, and she deserved it.  Ralph Fiennes does an eloquent job as the older Michael Berg, and David Kross is able to succeed as an adolescent and then as a conflicted law student in the film.  

The Reader is very sexual at the outset - with the clandestine affair of Winslet and Kross.  The affair moves beyond the teenage fantasy when Winslet announces, "We're changing the way we do things kid.  First you read to me...  Then we make love."  However, as with most films that are overtly sexual at times - the Reader moves on to explore the two characters and the ethical culture following the Holocaust.  While some scenes are predictable, the acting transcends the screen-play in that regard and I found myself on the edge of my seat in the interim period of 1966.

The Reader is a very good movie.  On IMDB it is given a 7.8/10, and I agree with that.  Winslet steals the show and attempts to drag it into a 9/10 (which i have never seen), but the story itself cannot move to epic but only remain at solid and compelling.  If you liked Atonement you will like this even more I think.  If you are expecting a feel good story that happens to be near the Holocaust - probably go see something else.  But, if you are okay being tossed around by incredible acting, the intricacies of love, and the difficulties of life and the sneaky watershed moments we are never prepared for - then I would highly recommend the Reader.  4/5 stars.

Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road: Rated R
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates

At the beginning of one of their arguments Kate Winslet asks Dicaprio, "Who made these rules?" and he has no answer but to retreat to some sort of caricatured "rationality". The movie is dark and disturbing if you have ever struggled with the meaninglessness of life. Or the hopelessness of existence. At one point in the movie it seems as though the husband and wife (with two prop-children) are firing off their hollow philosophies/worldviews at one another with no confidence in themselves - Dicaprio's of "You can be happy here" which seems a mere response to Winslet's "Find what makes you happy, leave and you are more likely to find it."

The movie is set in 1955 (with some in 1948, and flashbacks). Dicaprio works at in an Initech-like position similar to the one his father held for years. Winslet is his Stepford wife who has no idea what happened to her dreams of acting and the husband who, "Just wanted to feel life." Michael Shannon plays a good then a bad Deus Ex Machina (I looked it up to make sure I remembered what my Shakespeare Prof had said about this), with a powerful near-concluding line, "Now you'll never have to know what you're made of..." to Dicaprio.

I am fascinated when directors and writers downplay sex. That is done well in this movie, it is taken down a notch. Their marriage seems surreal to me, but I was not alive (or married) in 1955. If Mad Men and Far from Heaven were accurate, then Revolutionary Road is simply more drastic. I recommend Revolutionary Road, but it is not a feel good movie, it is only funny in ways that you're not sure if you should be laughing at. Without having seen "The Reader" I think Winslet totally deserves the oscar. 4.5/5 stars.