Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Reader

One of the most beautiful movies that I have ever seen in a very long time. Apart from the multiple sex scenes, which were actually very tastefully done, the dialogue was well-crafted and it was well cast-ed.

I like how the writers did not try to explain the Holocaust or try to make the guards out to be monsters, like how all the other movies / documentaries would. This one showed that even the most ordinary of people under unfamiliar circumstances can perform the most dreadful of acts.

Because her character is illiterate, she does not comprehend the magnitude of her confession and thus gets sentenced to life imprisonment. After about 20 years, she teaches herself to read and write and when she attains this literacy, she understands her situation a bit more. I'm not sure if it's guilt or regret that causes her to take her own life but there was such beauty in the way the movie ended. It was sad but beautiful how she took her life just when she could finally read and write at age 56.

Now I must look for the book.

2 comments:

Fabian said...

cut down on the R21 movies, u may become one of those monsters there

DISCLAIMER: I have never, and will never view R21 movies... M18 perhaps =D

nefertiti said...

me? a monster? Really :p

But some R21 flicks are really awesome... they only have that rating coz of the nudity, language or drug use...

don't be too hard on the R21 movies!!