The Reader is, at times, not an easy film to watch. While graphic in some ways, the real horror in the film is described only in a courtroom, where it has been sanitized and dehorrorized.
In so many ways, you empathize with these terribly broken people. Why are we so fascinated with WWII and the Nazis? Why are there so many Holocaust films? Because, as the protagonist Michael Berg (David Kross) exasperates, we are trying to understand.
Kate Winslet pulls a stunning performance (as to Kross and Ralph Finnes). Her character is a sympathetic one, but at the same time her actions are inexcusable. Her illiteracy parallels our lack of understanding the Holocaust, how something so evil could have been allowed to happen.
The film is brilliant. It is not just about the Holocaust, about what one woman does to contain her secret, but it is also about human nature, and how what shaped other people shapes ourselves.
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1 comment:
I think that's right, we are trying to understand.
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