My faithful readers will remember that I reviewed a book on June 22 called The Reader. Yesterday I watched the movie made from the book. I give it 2 thumbs WAY up !!!
This movie was produced in 2008 and starred Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and David Kross (the two men play the same character at different ages). Kate Winslet actually won several awards for this role, most significantly, the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.
I found the movie to be erotic, thought-provoking, historically interesting and sad, all at the same time, and I really enjoyed it. The DVD that I watched also had a list of deleted scenes. Those were very interesting to watch, and actually added some substance to the movie. As it is, the movie is over 2 hours long, so I totally understand why they might have chosen to delete some of the scenes they did, but some of them added significant plot detail that I remembered from the book. I'm glad I had read the book first, but it's certainly not essential for enjoyable movie viewing.
There were also a number of Special Features on the DVD in addition to Deleted Scenes that were very worthwhile. There were a couple about the making of the movie that really added a lot to my understanding of the historical background of the story. There was also a very interesting segment showing how they used make up to age Kate Winslet. At the time she made the movie, she was in her late 20s. In the movie, she goes from mid-thirties to mid-sixties. They did a lot with latex - not just on her face but on her hands and feet as well, to make her look older. It was amazing and spooky.
Overall, I can't recommend this book and movie too highly. It is one of those works that will be with me for a long time.
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