Every year, the Academy has to nominate a film for best picture that deals with stuffy British or Foreign People, (Atonement and The Queen) or movies about Lawyers and Trials (Michael Clayton) or movies about the Holocaust. They are usually boring and stuffy (except the masterpiece of Schindler's List and The Pianist isn't that bad. This year they nominated the The Reader which has elements of all three. It is a tradition for the Academy to nominate one boring movie for best picture.
The Reader isn't totally boring but it comes damn close...especially toward the end. The basic premise (minor spoilers) is that a boy meets an older lady, older lady seduces boy and gets naked through half the movie (never bad), boy finds out years later that woman was involved in the Holocaust during WWII and did some bad things. You know, your typical romantic movie.
The movie does have some excellent acting, especially by David Kross who is the young German seduced by Kate Winslet. Kate did a good job too but I think her role in Revolutionary Road is more powerful and that should have been nominated.
This movie does have it's moment but those are few and far between. Toward the end I kept on checking my watch which isn't a good thing for a movie. I give this movie 3.1 stars out of 5. I didn't hate it but it's not something I would want to watch over and over again.
Just minutes before bubbles came up from the bottom of the bath tub. Notice the grayed out boobs.
The Kid: "And then, at that moment. He noticed the Scarlet Johanson...I mean letter and said oates...Man this book sucks."
Winslet: "Enough, we must oates once again like we always do."