The Reader

I have just returned from seeing The Reader. It is a fabulous movie. I will not talk about the plot too much, as I am a firm believer in being able to see movies without knowing anything about them beforehand. This was not exactly the case for this particular film; I knew a bit, but the movie was so expansive and covered so many ideas that what I did know did not detract from the experience at all.

The movie made me think a lot. First of all, the acting was phenomenal. Kate Winslet continues to amaze me. As did Ralph Fiennes and David Kross, the other two leads. The film also made me think about something we’ve been talking about in my playwriting class; character versus plot. Which is the driving force in a dramatic piece such as a play or movie? My teacher argues that it is plot, because the plot is what creates a conflict, and allows the viewer to move with the story. This is very true, but movies such as The Reader reinforce my belief that characters are more important. The Reader is a picture of lives. Yes, those lives were conceived of and designed for the purpose of serving a plot (in this case one that was originally in book form), but it would be a mistake to say that because the plot necessitated the characters, the characters are supplemental to it. The reason this movie and others like it are so good is that the film is not about certain people or created to “tell” a story. The film is made as if you are a witness to the story. This sounds obvious, but it’s not; it seems that a lot of film is about taking the viewer through something or making them move in a certain way. The Reader presents us with fully developed characters in fully developed situations; an accurate depiction of real life. No matter how one-sided a situation may seem in real life, or how flat a character may seem, there is always something behind them. Simplicity is the result of logic. Simplicity is the result of a full personality, one that manifests itself in predictable ways according to its attributes. In real life, if you knew everything there was to know about someone, you would always know what they would do. We don’t know everything about everyone, so we clearly don’t always know what they will do, but in a film like this, you are put in the position that we find ourselves in often in real life; having to understand why someone does a certain thing. Puzzling out what it is about them that makes them act the way they do.

Anyway, I had a great evening, and am going to sleep well. Except that now I am thinking of a tragic scene in which the main character gets out of bed in the middle of the night and tells a lover that he has to sleep alone, and returns to his own room. It is hard to explain why this is so sad without explaining the rest of the movie, but believe me when I say that it was heartbreaking.