The Reader

This is a beautiful love story about a law student that finds his ex-lover as she faces a war-crimes trial. It could be also one of those stories of love unfulfilled, as both characters struggle not with their past, but more so with their present. 

It can be heart-breaking at times, as the innate differences between these lovers brings them both together and apart. The age difference is perfectly understandable and plays an important role as both characters mature and come to terms with the situation at hand with different approaches. Kate Winslet's role is touching (literally), as she chooses not to face humiliation - in any situation, her character is that of a very strong woman in her convictions and it shows an unrepentant sense of pride.

Though the story is beautiful (as I said before, we're all suckers for a good love story), I don't see much sense on the skipping back and forth through the timeline. I think this could be one of those stories that just moves forward from the early beginning. I don't know, I just feel this resource is sometimes overused without much relevance, i.e., whatever is happening at one end of the story line, isn't really too relevant to the overall conduction of the plot.

This movie made me reflect on how sometimes ignorance can play a defining role in most crises and wars, sometimes yielding intolerance, and sometimes, even worse, not even causing intolerance but mere indifference.  

I definitely recommend this movie, it is insightful and shows a very different angle to the worn out view of  a delicate theme such as the holocaust, and besides, this one just looks at the holocaust in mere retrospective. Remember evil has different levels, evil a la Madoff -wrongdoing with full knowledge of cause and effect-, and evil a la American History X (buy it) -wrongdoing out of mere ignorance and intolerance-. On which of these extremes does Hitler fall, and on which one does the common Nazi do?

This is a love story that has us rooting for the characters to fulfill their love despite their slight differences. (does age matter much?). The Reader gets a Buy it on my ratings.