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Original poster

anyone seen The Reader yet?

19 replies

brimfull · 01/01/2009 18:53

any good?

OP posts:
Original poster
brimfull · 01/01/2009 21:58

bump

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jujumaman · 02/01/2009 17:17

waagh

I have

Don't go!

It is breathtakingly dull, quite a feat for a movie about sex and Nazis.

Kate Winslet does her best but the script is so awful you can't get the slightest grip on her character. The morality of it is highly dubious (poor Nazis, they badly educated and anyway they were only obeying orders) and you have no idea why, beyond a bit of rumpy pumpy, the two main characters are meant to be so madly in love with each other. The whole thing is brimming with self importance and saying "we should get an Oscar for this because it's deep".

Did I mention that you shouldn't go? Wait for Frost Nixon, much better film.

Original poster
brimfull · 02/01/2009 18:54

thanks juju
we are going to see the changeling tonight

haven't warned dh that it's depressing yet

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jujumaman · 02/01/2009 19:29

Haven't seen Changeling but not much could be as bad as the Reader. Enjoy.

ahundredtimes · 02/01/2009 19:31

Yes, I've seen.

It's not all that, tbh. And should have been better because it's about interesting things. I think worth seeing though, for some reason, no idea why I say that.

ahundredtimes · 02/01/2009 19:32

Milk is good.

slayerette · 02/01/2009 19:32

I've read the book and, must admit, was a bit taken aback by all the reviews saying that The Reader was the most important book ever written about the Holocaust - I finished it with no more profound understanding of it than when I'd started and just felt cheated. I hate it when things are touted as being deep and important and they're just poncey.

ahundredtimes · 02/01/2009 19:33

I don't the Reader is poncy though, I mean, it's not fake or showing off. But it does feel a bit hollow because it should be about moral responsibility and it wasn't really.

slayerette · 02/01/2009 19:37

Yes, I agree with you - couldn't think of the right way to say it but you did!

Am just cranky about books like this because I'm reading Don DeLillo's Falling Man at the moment ('the most important book about 9/11' - sigh) and am indefinably let down by it and can't explain why. I wanted it to move me more than it has done.

ahundredtimes · 02/01/2009 19:40

'the most important. . .' always a bit dodgy, I agree. Also never sure that 'importance' is what I look for in a book. Important always sounds a little too like Pompous for me.

Sorry about Delillo though. Am reading The Outliers and feeling much the same.

Original poster
brimfull · 03/01/2009 00:14

100x -have just been listening to the author of the OUtliers on radio2. Thought the book sounded interesting.Would you not recommend it then?

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ahundredtimes · 03/01/2009 13:43

Oh no it's okay ggirl. He sort of states the obvious in a rather elegant and enjoyable way. But actually the detail is great fun, but the general argument strikes me as perfectly obvious - I mean that success should be a combination of talent, hard work and opportunity - but the examples he gives are entertaining. So worth a read, yes!

notnowplease · 03/01/2009 13:45

Dull?It was beautiful and so moving

wintera · 03/01/2009 19:53

I love both Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes so was really excited aboout the pairing, but from what I have seen, I just don't fancy it!

Stephen Daldry doesn't really do it for me as a director though. I liked Billy Elliott but oh jesus The Hours????? Now that was a really depressing movie!

ahundredtimes · 03/01/2009 20:05

That was a fantastic movie winteria. What's the matter with you!

wintera · 03/01/2009 20:48

Sorry but I thought The Hours was boring and dreary. Went to see it as soon as it came out, and can safely say I won't ever watch it again. It was very professionally made, good acting (especially Julianne Moore , who I thought was much better than Nicole Kindling!) and in theory it should be a belter of a film. BUT - it bored me rigid and I didn't like or care about any of the characters at all. Sorry to upset you ahundredtimes, but thats just the way I feel!

However I seem to remember that I did like the musical score by Philip Glass a lot.

Original poster
brimfull · 04/01/2009 15:55

I completely adored The Hours,even bought the dvd,which i never usually do.

Anyway dh and I went to see The Changeling which was good despite being slightly depressing.

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bundle · 04/01/2009 16:24

agree the Hours was pants

loved The Reader as a book so I'm probably not going to tarnish that with mediocre actors like Winslett and one-trick-pony like Fiennes

Pan · 21/01/2009 06:46

I really liked The Reader. Yes, RF is being very RF,and has no spectrum of acting talent to show. And I really wanted to smack the little git of a student in the face when he refused to mention the fact taht Anna Schmitz couldn't read or write. >.
The final scene was absurd.

Still. Liked the film though.

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