Magic Review: The Reader

Straight off the bat I can tell you that Kate Winslet deserved an Academy Award for this role more than any other actress this year. The movie surrounds an affair that is engaged in by a train inspector Hanna Schmidt (Winslet) and Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes). The affair begins when Michael is ages 14 and the relationbship is based purely on lust and Scmidts desire to be read to. This lasts for one summer when Schmidt leaves unexpectly. This leaves the young German left unfullfilled and lost as to what has occured. Michael begins to get on with his life and enters law school where he is to attend the trials of a group of women who are bring tried for killing jews during the holocaust. One of whom is Hanna Scmidt. This has a profound effect on Michael and he becomes infatuated with the trial, which is noticable to the other students. The trial is an emotional rollercoaster and gives insight into how some of the woman were treated at the Nazi camps. Scmidt is painted as the squad leader who ordered the killings which she is tried for and the outcome is fascinating. Enter Ralph Fiennes as the older Michael who is now a lawyer and cannot let the thought of Schmidt go which is eventually acts on and begins to rebuild the relationship with her in a very unorthodoxed fashion. The end result of the relationship is astounding. I urge any real movie buff to get this movie as it is one of the best released in th last year.

Magic Rating: 8.6