The Reader (2008)

***SPOLIER ALERT*** The post-Holocaust drama "The Reader" is good-looking and well-acted, but the film never fully addresses its dark secrets or sparks to life despite its heavy subject matter: A German teenager named Michael Berg (David Kross) begins a sexual relationship with a mid-30s trolley worker named Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). Then one day, she is gone from her apartment, and Michael is left shattered.
Several years later in his mid-20s and a law student, Michael sees Hanna again. She is on trial as a former prison guard for Hitler's SS, charged with mass murder.

Whoa, right?

The film also cuts to a mid-40s Michael (Ralph Fiennes) as he traipses around unable to trust another woman.

I'm not keen on all the acclaim "The Reader" is getting. We never get inside Hanna's head or soul, despite a fantastic performance by Winslet. She remains an enigma that Michael can't unravel. Nor can the audience. Her past is never shown. Unbelievably.

The problems comes from our distance to Hanna, we are denied access to her thoughts and feelings. And her final act smacks of writer's cop out rather than truth. OK, screw it. She offs herself. But why??? I'm no prude, I took an art class in college that centered on pornography for weeks on end, so no sex scene will shock me -- but we get scenes of countless sexual encounters between young Michael and Hanna, and, err, bathtub fun, but nothing deep as far as Hanna's soul is concerned.

The film dawdles as screenwriter David Hare and director Stephen Daldry push Michael to a point of self-understanding. The catch: He's not that interesting and Fiennes has done "emotionally dead" almost as much as Morgan Freeman has done "wise mentor." The best sections come in the long discussions about morality, making for some strong complex scenes. A law student exclaims at one point that the entire German population should have committed suicide over its crimes against the Jewish population. It's a heart-stopping moment. It's a shame the rest of the film isn't as bold.

As in "The Hours," by the same writer/director team, "The Reader" had fantastic promise, but it remains untapped. A final serious of question: Why don't we ever get to see Winslet's murderous acts? Why did she become a Nazi? How'd she kill? Did she feel remorse? Why should we feel sorry for her? Because she can't read? Untapped. Untapped. Untapped. All of it. C+