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Average User Score: 8 (10 sources)

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westcoastwillam

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I watched the reader the other night and I have to say it started out somewhat weird to me just A strange movie but it still felt fresh to me(given it has been summer and there has been some less than spectacular films out) fresh Dig from what I...
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I watched the reader the other night and I have to say it started out somewhat weird to me just A strange movie but it still felt fresh to me(given it has been summer and there has been some less than spectacular films out) fresh Dig from what I had been watching as the movie carried on it kept getting better and evoking Sadness and I felt for this film it brought out the emotions in you because there was real acting in it The thing that makes this movie so great is that it's A truly great story that will make you feel something and thats what movies are supposed to do.

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Posted jun 30, 2009 3:37 pm pt

• [+] Premiere
  
  100
  Winslet deserves an Oscar for her amazing performance.

  by Jenni Miller | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Onion (A.V. Club)
  
  91
  Kross and Winslet's intense performances and Daldry's deliberately placid control of tone make the material work as a love (and hate) story as well as a metaphor.

  by Tasha Robinson | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  91
  The Reader is significant because -- like another film opening today, "Valkyrie" -- it asks us to see not just the Jews but the whole German people as victims of the Holocaust, and to view Nazism as more a product of explicable ignorance than inexplicable evil.

  by William Arnold | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  88
  The crucial decision in The Reader is made by a 24-year-old youth, who has information that might help a woman about to be sentenced to life in prison, but withholds it. He is ashamed to reveal his affair with this woman. By making this decision, he shifts the film's focus from the subject of German guilt about the Holocaust and turns it on the human race in general.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  78
  There is a sense of ambiguity at the core of The Reader that makes it all the more brutal, all the more honest in its deflowering of love and what one imagines love ought to be instead of what it too often is.

  by Marc Savlov | Read Full Review »
• [+] Philadelphia Inquirer
  
  75
  With this film Daldry, previously the director of "Billy Elliot" and "The Hours," proves himself the screen's reigning master at showing passion thwarted or repressed.

  by Carrie Rickey | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  75
  An immaculately crafted, splendidly acted drama with a message at its core of forgiveness and humanity. It's also blatantly manipulative, and, upon reflection, rather banal. In other words, it's the epitome of Oscar bait and almost serves as a step-by-step guide to creating such a beast.

  by Marc Mohan | Read Full Review »
• [+] Charlotte Observer
  
  75
  This coming-of-age portion is the less interesting half, though it has the more interesting Michael. We have seen Fiennes play an emotionally detached introvert so often that he brings nothing new to the role, apt though he is.

  by Lawrence Toppman | Read Full Review »
• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  75
  Fiennes brings to the role a shimmering subtlety.

  by Peter Rainer | Read Full Review »
• [+] ReelViews
  
  75
  The Reader is closer to a near miss than a rousing success but, on balance, this is still worth seeing for those who enjoy complexity and moral ambiguity within the context of a melodrama.

  by James Berardinelli | Read Full Review »
• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  75
  Winslet's fierce, unerring portrayal goes beyond acting, becoming a provocation that will keep you up nights.

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »
• [+] USA Today
  
  75
  Though the effort is uneven, it's a well-acted romance that becomes a less compelling courtroom drama.

  by Claudia Puig | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  70
  An engaging period drama. But German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject matter for the holiday season.

  by Kirk Honeycutt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  It is only, frankly, the strength of Winslet's performance that rises above conventional surroundings and makes The Reader the experience it should be.

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Reader
  
  70
  The revelation that Winslet's character is a war criminal is the centerpiece of The Reader, but surrounding the Holocaust morality play is another story that's more modestly scaled and, in this age of unashamed romance between older women and younger men, more contemporary.

  by J.R. Jones | Read Full Review »