The Reader: The Most Boring Love Story Of Our Time

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

Let me start with the most important line you 'll read in this entire review...this movie blows. OK, with that out of the way, here's why. There's no "meat," no payoff for sitting through what seems like a lifetime's worth of "guy falls in love with girl" storyline. Sorry, Stephen Daldry, your other director credits are respectable (Billy Elliot, The Hours,) but this one, not so much. I don't know how to explain the Golden Globe Best Motion Picture nomination...someone's sleeping with someone and the sex better be good. I'll admit I was less than thrilled to walk into the theater for a romance about someone who reads to a lady with whom he's in love, but hey, I like to keep an open mind. Also, the screening took place at the Hi-Pointe, a great old-school St. Louis place to take in a film. But for your own benefit, stay home.

Davis Kross, Kate Winslet, and Ralph Feinnes smile as if they didn't just make an uninspiring film.

The Reader takes place in 1950's Germany, where teenager Michael Berg (David Kross) falls ill of Scarlet fever (Ah, remember that disease? Good times!) and Hanna (Kate Winslet,) a woman several years his senior, takes his vomiting bum in from the street and sees that he makes it home safely. Fast forward a few months, Michael feels better and visits Hanna to thank her for the hospitality. The two share a moment and Michael REALLY ends up "thanking her for her hospitality" (wink wink nod nod if you know what I mean...I'm talking about sex, just to be clear.) To add to the hair-raising excitement, Michael reads to Hanna during every encounter (she never learned herself.) The two carry on the affair for a while, until she mysteriously ends it...but not before the entire audience is bored to tears and ready to commit hara-kiri in the theater aisle. Fast forward a few more years and Michael's now a law student sitting in, as fate would have it, on the war crimes trial of Hanna, his former lover. See what happened there? Hollywood made the nearly impossible seem completely likely and their paths crossed once more. Ralph Feinnes lends his name to the marquee as an "all growed up" Mr. Berg who, surprise surprise, never stopped caring about Hanna.

Michael reads to Hanna in the bathtub...sorry for the spoiler.

I'll save the rest of the story in case you're looking for a good place to take a nap and you decide to see this movie. Apologies for sounding cynical, but maybe I can explain...The synopsis I read prior to the screening went something like, "Man has brief affair with woman in post-WWII Germany, only to run into her years later during her trial for Nazi war crimes." With about ten minutes of the two-hour plus movie devoted to the trial, that's a slightly misleading synopsis. I'm not saying I wanted Schindler's List, but if you're going to get me into the theater by mentioning a Nazi war crimes trial, spend a little time in the courtroom, Mr. Daldry. This isn't a courtroom drama/love story, it's just a love story, and a boring one at that. It takes more than an hour for any hint of suspense to build. If I were a teacher, I'd give The Reader a D. Click the Video tab to watch the trailer.

This article also has 1 video attached to it.