The Reader was one of the best books I've ever read. I love book clubs. If it weren't for the book club at my condo I wouldn't have read The Reader all those years ago. I'd never heard of it. It was an Oprah pick but I don't watch Oprah.
I wasn't expecting much from the movie. But we saw it last night and it was breathtaking. I hope either The Reader or Slumdog Millionaire wins the Oscar. They're both important, beautiful, heartbreaking movies that make us think about things we don't want to think about.
The book and movie The Reader bring out many issues but I want to zero in on three.
The character, Hanna, played in a terrifyingly vulnerable way by Kate Winslett, is deeply flawed.
When we first see her she seduces a 15 year old boy. He's a child - so it's abuse. We know that children who are abused (especially sexually) sometimes never recover.
So when you're watching the steamy sex scenes (that carry on for the first third of this movie) remember what's happening wounds this boy forever.
Second, there's the 600 people horribly murdered.
Third, and very important, there's her secret. Her secret destroys her.
Dr. Scott Peck in his book, People of the Lie, describes people who do evil. His first example in this book is surprising because it's about a traveling salesman who, all at once, becomes afraid to cross bridges. So he finds ways to avoid them. His behavior finally escalates to terrible proportions.
Is Peck saying that mental illness is evil? No. He's saying that denying who you are and where you are weak - pretending it isn't so - is evil.
Hanna's secret, her denial of her weakness, destroys her and almost everyone else in her path.
***
I wasn't expecting much from the movie. But we saw it last night and it was breathtaking. I hope either The Reader or Slumdog Millionaire wins the Oscar. They're both important, beautiful, heartbreaking movies that make us think about things we don't want to think about.
The book and movie The Reader bring out many issues but I want to zero in on three.
The character, Hanna, played in a terrifyingly vulnerable way by Kate Winslett, is deeply flawed.
When we first see her she seduces a 15 year old boy. He's a child - so it's abuse. We know that children who are abused (especially sexually) sometimes never recover.
So when you're watching the steamy sex scenes (that carry on for the first third of this movie) remember what's happening wounds this boy forever.
Second, there's the 600 people horribly murdered.
Third, and very important, there's her secret. Her secret destroys her.
Dr. Scott Peck in his book, People of the Lie, describes people who do evil. His first example in this book is surprising because it's about a traveling salesman who, all at once, becomes afraid to cross bridges. So he finds ways to avoid them. His behavior finally escalates to terrible proportions.
Is Peck saying that mental illness is evil? No. He's saying that denying who you are and where you are weak - pretending it isn't so - is evil.
Hanna's secret, her denial of her weakness, destroys her and almost everyone else in her path.
***
