Catching up with Netflix: The Reader

**1/2 Stars

Kate Winslet deservingly won her first Oscar last year, but for the wrong movie. That movie is The Reader, in which Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz, a woman who at the age of thirty-six has an affair with a fifteen year old named Michael Berg (David Kross plays the young Michael). After the affair ends, Michael learns years later that Hanna is on trial for horrific Nazi war crimes. While attending her trial, Michael knows a truth that could prove her innocence, but Hanna is sworn to protect this secret to save her from an overwhelming embarrassment. Ralph Fiennes plays the grown-up Michael who is still torn about the decisions made years before.

Now the premise just reeks of Oscar Gold doesn't it?: Winslet, acting in top form in a Holocaust movie playing someone who has a forbidden affair? It sure does. But does the film itself hold strongly as the premise? I guess. But, I'll be honest, I had gloomy feelings about this film before viewing it because it was unrightfully nominated for Best Picture and it robbed Kate Winslet's real Oscar-turn in Revolutionary Road. And while watching The Reader, that spite really didn't go away. While I'll admit I was intrigued in the film's daring display of the characters lives (the first act of this film is excellent), the film ends with an unsatisfactory conclusion. The Reader doesn't pack the emotional punch as it should. Instead, we get a good film that should be unanimously great.