Kate Winslet delivers another entirely convincing performance in The Reader, the story of a German law student, Michael, who stumbles into a sexual relationship with Hannah Schmitz (Winslet) at the age of 15. Nearly ten years later, at law school, Michael observes in person the trial of Schmitz and others for Nazi war crimes. Michael is played by David Kross as a young man, and by Ralph Fiennes in later life. Both Hannah and Michael are the kind of people who make you want to, at least once during the course of the film, reach through the screen, grab them by the shoulders and vigorously shake some sense into them. They are stubborn to their own detriment, but not, it seems from any sort of principle, but from some general misguided obtuseness.
When given a clear choice between good action and bad inaction, both characters choose the latter. [SPOILER ALERT]. Hannah was an SS officer during the war who, together with several other guards, left 300 prisoners to burn to death inside a burning building rather than risk the chaos that would result from letting them out. Displaying a remarkable lack of imagination, Hannah cannot recognize what options she might have had at the time. The other accused guards, sensing an opening, decide to cast Hannah as the ringleader of the war crime. Is Hannah’s lack of imagination a product of her illiteracy? Her foreplay with young Michael is to have him read to her. Having readers is a habit she apparently picked up during the war when she would force young prisoners to read to her. So she seems more like a simply heartless person. But at the same time it is difficult to reconcile this image with the person who, years later in prison, teaches herself to read by comparing the pages of a book with the audiotapes sent to her by the older Michael, and who has the ability to recognize and cherish great literature.
Speaking of Michael, why does he withhold the information of her illiteracy from Hannah’s lawyers that would have spared her a harsh sentence? When he provides her the gift of audio tapes of books (including classics such as The Odyssey), why does he refuse to answer her plaintive letters in her newfound written hand?
I have other questions about the actions of these characters, most importantly about Hannah’s final act. I can speculate about their motives, but I think the movie does not provide us enough insight into either character to reach a conclusion. Nevertheless, I found several moments in the movie to be quite powerful. The sequence where Michael spends hours on end recording books for Hannah who ultimately, painstakingly, uses these to teach herself to read, is moving, as are Michael’s moves to reach out to his estranged daughter. The movie is an interesting character study of sorts, but ultimately left me with too many questions.