Stephen Daldry
The Reader

Can the words of a recorder give new meaning to life? Can an illiterate person find in reading and writing the flame of a new passion, the spark of renewed vitality? Apparently yes, or at least in part.

Stephen Daldry, the acclaimed director of "The Hours," after six years of "cinematic silence," returned in 2008 with his third feature film: "The Reader" is an adaptation of the novel "Der Vorleser" by German author Bernhard Schlink. A complex story is what Daldry chose for his third work: lawyer Michael (Ralph Fiennes) lives in a spacious house with "bleached" décor, psychologically tormented by his past. In the post-war period of a Germany still profoundly shaken by the horrors of Nazism, he met Hanna (Kate Winslet), a woman much older than him. This did not stop the two from starting a relationship based on sex and readings: those that Michael takes up from school. Homer, Schiller, Chekhov, and other authors chase each other between the sheets of a modest home and the concerns of a strict family (his own).

From such a base, which smoothly transitions from sentimentality to history, Nazism, and an analysis of antisemitism, Daldry's film never quite takes off completely. "The Reader" primarily falters by not being able to define itself well: the beginning suggests an improbable love story in a complex historical period, and the film’s progression casts shadows over all this and lingers on Michael's university life, increasingly destroyed by the pains of the past. The event that will steer the film in a completely different direction is placed by Daldry about halfway through: Hanna is nothing more than a former Nazi official accused of crimes against Jewish women. Michael, who finds himself attending her trial as part of his law course, finds himself torn between two opposing feelings: the sentimental bond with the woman persists, now tainted by a sense of censure never fully accepted. The challenge of bringing to the big screen all the emotions generated by such a story is overlooked by Daldry, who, unsatisfied with the subject matter, gets impassioned by searching for suitable cinematography, ending up bleaching everything and turning 1950s Germany into an incorrect reproduction of modern chromaticism. These washed-out and "bright" colors juxtapose with a story that speaks above all of pain and suffering, where very little space is left for happiness. Other criticisms can be directed toward less-than-excellent makeup.

Despite these negative points, "The Reader" also presents peculiarities of a completely different caliber: the screenplay by Daldry's trusted collaborator, David Hare, succeeds in the not overly simple task of supporting a feature film of considerable artistic and thematic substance. Furthermore, another strength of "The Reader" lies in Daldry’s ability to draw the best from the actors at his disposal: once again in his film, the female figure is predominant. As was the case with Julie Walters in "Billy Elliot" and Nicole Kidman in "The Hours," here the "housekeeper" is Kate Winslet, winner of the Oscar for this very role.

Stephen Daldry crafts a difficult film. Themes such as forgiveness, memory, history, reminiscence, the intertwining with literature (already present in "The Hours"), and a pronounced (at times forced) underlying sentimentality alternate in it, which can also come across as syrupy. A courageous film that, while not entirely successful, confirms Stephen Daldry as one of the most interesting filmmakers of recent years.

2009 Academy Award for Best Actress (Kate Winslet).