The Reader
The Reader was a fifteen year old West German boy named Michael who in 1955 took up reading aloud at the bedside of Hannah, a woman 18 years his senior. Hannah was no invalid but Michael cared for her dutifully, probably in large part because there was sex involved after each oration. The affair lasted one summer before Hannah launched into her usual mysterious vagabond routine and disappeared. He never sees her again until 11 yeas later when as a law student his class is assigned to sit in the court room for the trial of six SS war criminals. To his shock Hannah is one of the accused charged with systematically murdering hundreds of Auschwitz prisoners. As the trial progresses it becomes clear that Hannah would rather die than admit total illiteracy – an admission that could acquit her. Michael is the only other person who know and must live with the consequences of what he does with that knowledge. David Koss plays young Michael, a role taken over by Ralph Fiennes as Michael in his forties and fifties. Kate Winslet is an amazing Hannah not only as a scarred woman in her mid thirties and forties but also as a broken matron in her sixties. She makes you realize why the movie had to be an easy choice for a Golden Globe nomination with more honours probably on the way.