The Reader (2008)

This film gave the Oscar denied to Kate Winslet, when she was the protagonist of Titanic, is my personal opinion, as well as the fact that this role was not superior to the previous mentioned nor the film so successful.

It takes place in Germany in 1958 and shows the romance of a young teenager with a woman twenty years older, with whom he makes contact when he falls ill on his way home and she helps him.

It is scented by books, innocence, individual morality, guilt and situations that are beyond the ability of the protagonists to solve them and above all secrets.

The performance of David Kross who plays the young Michael Berg from 15 to 23 years old is very good, he makes the viewer identify with the character and far exceeds the one performed by Ralph Fiennes who represents him as an adult, this without underestimating the good work of the actor, perhaps it affects the fact that the passionate scenes occur in the script when the protagonist is a teenager.

The work of Kate Winslet: who gives life to Hanna Schmitz, is very good, not only in the strong scenes but also in the later ones when she is imprisoned and tried for crimes committed during the war.

The screenplay was written by David Hare, based on Bernhard Schlink's book of the same name, it is worth mentioning that when the film was made the screenwriter was already more than ten years dead, the same happened with the producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack who died before it was trained.

The budget for the production was around 32 million and the total gross was 109 million, so it can not be said that it was a great success in theaters, although it was nominated in 5 categories for the Oscars and won only in Best Actress.

The whole movie was filmed in German and its actors except for Fiennes, Winslet and Lena Olin were German, it is also worth mentioning that the sex scenes had to be filmed when Kross turned 18.

Personally I enjoyed it although there are moments when the dialogues could become a bit heavy, but the structure of the story is good and fulfills the objective of entertaining and showing part of the history of the consequences of the Second World War and showing the Germany of that time.