the audience applauded

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Powerful film! Decisions Michael made were disappointing in that he could've SAVED Her! A hug. Telling the court Hanna could barely write and couldn't read. Why would she be so selfish or proud to go without honesty in that moment, to take the fall, to never see how far and deep She and Michael could've gone, as to not reveal her illiteracy? Michael was young and felt peer pressure to hate Her, but He could've saved Her in that court room. Modern day, Americans call anybody that disagrees with liberal ideology a Nazi or fascist. They will shout down free speech and call anybody a Nazi. But do they even know who the nazis were? I doubt Hanna was even a member of the NASDP. SS Guard, but illiterate?! I highly doubt an illiterate person would be a member of the Nazi party. Most people don't realize that detail. You can be a camp guard but not a Nazi. You can be a 16 year old WAFFEN SS soldier fighting in battle against the red army, but not even a member of the NASDP. Most Americans get their American version of the war. Russians and Brits get there versions. They're all different. Most Americans think all Germans were evil nazis. There are uneducated video games with "Nazi zombies" but where is the accurate history? Germany, there are laws that ban the imagery of swastika. Video game developers can't even add the symbol in the game. It's history and very important to be documented. I'm Half Black and I want to see swastikas in WW2 video games and other documentations. How will we see the past accurately? How will we discern good from bad? Learn from mistakes? Again, most young American liberal minded types will call anything and anybody a Nazi. I'm half black, and they'll call me a Nazi before seeing my skin tone. This is what happens when free speech is stifled and when guilty feeling governments repress historic symbols like the swastika from even video games, or old WAFFEN SS uniforms. How can people demand progress if they hide the past? How can people correct mistakes if they can't see what they were? This is what happens when the German government bans historic documents, and hinders understanding of even their dark and shameful past. I'm from the same city where Dr. Martin Luther King jr was killed. My city doesn't hide that. They have a museum. They remind people. What I see happening in Europe where free speech is being stifled, it's only setting the world up for more of the bad from history. I'm mentioning this because it correlates to the guilt and fear Michael felt in that courtroom from speaking the TRUTH to save the Woman HE LOVED out of fear of backlash from the angry victims and others in that courtroom. People he might've relied on as Clients. I understand the reasons, but it's always sad to see the TRUTH die in fear. Even if it's to save a former SS camp guard. I think most people can relate to the connection Michael and Hanna Had. When I saw Hanna teaching Michael how to make love with Her, I envied Michael! The pictures of female SS camp guards aren't very flattering. Most were unattractive. Only one was young and beautiful, Irma Grese! Aside from Her, all the female SS guards were scary looking. Maybe Kate winslett was an accurate portrayal of a female SS camp guard, but maybe not. I'll just say, if they looked like Her, I'd willingly go to camp. I knew the outcome of Hanna. I knew When Michael visited her how things would end. He could've hugged her. Maybe he wasn't ready to re connect. I'm surprised there were no flashback scenes to the 1940's. Most other stories would've included visualizing those times. The main detail I couldn't believe was how an adult living in Germany could be ILLITERATE! Wow! I guess I don't know everything about the Germans from that war. And I've done years of research, more than the average American, regarding that war and the Military factions of Nazi Germany. I wanted Michael to save her, but it didn't happen. I couldn't help but fall in Love with Hanna. She was very lovable, despite her past. When She said she only remembered the past at trial, I guess it's possible her past wasn't emulated in her when Michael met Her. He Saw Her goodness. I think everybody that calls Anybody a Nazi, and stifles free speech should watch this film. The film left me with more questions than answers, but that's okay. I'm thinking. If only everybody could think and remember and learn from the past mistakes. And learn from what works. Hanna didn't teach me how to make love with a Woman, but She made me see the goodness in Her and how everybody can be both good and bad. We all have choices to make. CHOICES! Not talking about her Choices, but choices in general. What's the right choice?

The director Stephen Daldry brings to life The Reader, a romance between a teenage boy, Michael Berg (David Kross), and an older woman, Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz). It's filled with hard emotions, love, drama and a touch of sexuality.The story goes along the years 1965 and 1995, where Michael is played by two actors, David Kross as young Michael and Ralph Fiennes and adult Michael. In these 124 minutes, we get to see the first love of young Michael, the difficulties a teenager goes through when dealing and understanding someone from the opposite sex, especially an older woman. We also get to see the enthusiasm, anxiety and passion that this first love makes him feel, like nothing else in the world mattered, only her.I went through a roller coaster of emotions throughout the movie. I felt in love, devastated, afraid, pity. A lot of things (good, but mostly bad) happened between Michael and Hanna during the years, but, somehow, a little flame of love and caring remained untouchable, even if they did not show it to one another. In a way, it made me feel like I was watching a fairy tale surrounded by a horrifying reality, waiting to see prince charming saving the damsel in distress.The music throughout the movie was on point. Right moment, right time, right tune and right tone. Really helped intensify the emotions I was feeling, as well as guide them on the correct path.A captivating love story, kept me glued to the screen from start to finish, with a lot of details to enjoy and feelings to feel. A great work, a great watch, a great time. 8 out of 10.

As more and more people in modern society fail to clearly identify the difference between Love and Lust – it's little wonder there are so many poor marriages and divorce. 'The Reader' is yet another of the many, so-called 'romantic' movies, spinning yarns of the power of first 'love'. In this case, it's the love/lust between a 15yr old lad and a 36yr old woman named Hanna (Winslet). She, as it turns out was an SS guard in a Nazi death camp during WW11 – we all know this situation "she/they were just doing their job - like everyone else". This particular story begins more than a decade after her war service. Now she's working as a tram conductor and the lad, is a student whom she assists in the street - following his suffering a fever-induced vomiting session. She takes him to her apartment, cleans him up and then assists him back to his parent's home. He returns with flowers to thank her and before we know it she has her clothes off and heavily involved in instant seduction – better known as 'lust'.It's not always easy to figure just what screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry are wanting to highlight as the chief focus of their adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's novel (as it tended to be with this duo's earlier collaboration, 'The Hours' in '02). The first section concentrates too heavily on the sexual relationship - with over detailed sequences featuring heavy bouts of nudity and sexual experiments. Reviewer, Thelma Adams of the Huffington Post quite rightly identified these scenes as borderline child pornography (little more than abuse). This activity has been carefully set-up to be 'accepted' by the viewer as the 'norm' but, is it really quite so? Hanna is a troubled woman and often treats her 'Kid' harshly. Following their summer 'encounters', she eventually disappears and her 'kid' is left seriously distressed and confused.It's here, the movie shifts its tone to become an examination of a war crimes trial. More ambiguity within the writing surfaces - with what amounts to being heavy scrutiny of whether it's worse to publicly admit being 'illiterate' or someone who assisted with murdering hundreds of innocent people? The movie is well acted and slickly photographed yet, seems very long for its two-hour running time. While it obviously pleased the academy (it doesn't take much these days) and some audiences – it will, and has, left serious analytical thinkers unhappy with what they will clearly 'read' between the lines.

this movie is just amazing i love watching Kate Winslet,especially her character in this movie overall i love this movie so in this movie the actors are what drag the audience into this story. David Kross is amazing as the young Michael who has to play a range of virginal innocent to wizened and bitter. It's the key role in the film, and we're all lucky he was found to play this role. And the ever confounding Kate Winslet. What an amazing career for this young actress! Running through a list of her credits, she has some of the best performances of the last decade: "Holy Smoke," "Eternal Sunshine…," "Iris," "Finding Neverland," "Little Children." But here she does something very different. Playing what amounts to a monster, we see that they too are human. Not many actresses could bring this off, but it may be her greatest accomplishment to date.