The Reader

It's hard to write about all the issues raised by this movie without giving away a few key plot points, but I'm going to try, because even though I didn't like the movie very much, I think it's worth seeing (and seeing on the big screen, too, rather than waiting for the DVD, because the movie is visually quite beautiful).

Here's one question raised by this movie: at what point do we forget the crimes of previous generations and move forward? Can we ever do that? Should we ever do that? Are there some crimes so egregious they can never be forgiven, never glossed over?

Here's another question: what happens if justice and morality do not necessarily line up? What happens when we realize that a law-based society may not necessarily be a moral society?

And here's another question - a real humdinger: what happens if you find out that your first love - an older person, a grown-up, someone who brought you a golden summer of sexual pleasure, emotional intimacy, kindness, romance - what if you found out that this person was, before you ever knew her, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. What would you do? How would you feel?

"The Reader" asks all these questions, and more, but isn't preachy or moralizing - in fact, it is a movie that is almost disconcertingly without a moral: it raises questions but doesn't answer them. I appreciated the fact that the movie didn't blare a message from a soapbox - it's much more subtle than that - but I wonder if the movie's subtlety didn't also create a sense of distance that prevented me from fully locking in on the emotions of the characters. I felt oddly unmoved at the end of the movie, which I don't think was the director's intention.

On the other hand, images and conversations from the movie are still bouncing around in my head, so maybe it's one of those movies whose emotional impact takes a little while to sink in...

I'd be surprised if the movie wins Best Picture, however. It asks Big Questions - but Hollywood only likes movies to ask Big Questions if they also provide Easy Answers. And "The Reader" isn't about answers - only questions.

What did you think?