2/5 The Sick Result of Gender Fascism
  by Michael (Hamburg, Germany)
I hope that all those who give this film a positive review would be equally enthusiastic about the story of an ex-SS soldier and his repeated statutory rape and subsequent desertion of a 15 year old girl. Western society's pseudo-equality, presented in its most exaggerated form in Hollywood, states that the crimes of women, especially the good-looking ones, are to be forgiven and are nowhere near as bad as the identical crimes committed by men. This is because women have feelings, even war criminals involved in genocide, while men are creatures devoid of them and deserve their full punishment.

Throughout the film, Winslet's character shows not the slightest sign of remorse that she helped burn people alive, and merely tries to give excuses. At one point, she asks the ridiculous question to the judge 'What would you have done?'. This from a woman who volunteered for the SS to work in concentration camps, which only the mentally challenged could have had any doubts about even during the war. Yes, say that to one of the German Wehrmacht's poor conscripts who were uprooted from family and home for military service, or faced a concentration camp for draft-dodging. But please don't say that about someone who as a woman could have spent the war sitting pretty in her factory job, but chose to make extra money by working at Auschwitz.

Apart from showing not the slightest sign of remorse for her part in the Holocaust, she has the audacity to commit child abuse on a 15 year old child, using him for her selfish ends and then dumping him when she'd had enough. What he sees in the miserable, unloving, haggard woman is beyond comprehension. But would fans of this film watch an equally well-made film of the repeated statutory rape of a girl with equal enthusiasm? Or has Hollywood's gender fascism really blunted the intellects and moral sensibilities of so many?

Should we really feel sorry for her excessive sentence for not admitting she couldn't write? Certainly not. We should see it as an example of the damaging effects of having an ego so massive, of being so swollen-headed and vain that one would rather get life imprisonment than admit one's failures. Pathetic. (But then again, this could never have happened in reality. Every SS applicant had a mountain of papers and forms to fill in and illiterates then wouldn't have got much further than your average applicant for the police force today. More Hollywood fantasy.)

The woman was lucky she wasn't prosecuted directly after the war when war criminals were still executed, which is what she definitely deserved. Instead, she got away with life imprisonment, something the 600 poor women she enjoyed burning alive would have done anything for. Kate Winslet and her young co-star do a good job playing these roles, no question. But this film is fundamentally, morally flawed, and is not only hated by all Holocaust survivors for good reason. It's increasingly hated by those who see the perversion of justice that results when we say that murder and child abuse committed by a woman are not as as bad as the identical crimes committed by a man.

5/5 No easy answers, but very easy to get immersed
  by Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA)
This beautifully acted and shot film is laced with complex characterizations and complex emotional situations, making it a breath of fresh air in today's increasingly simple cinematic landscape. Thematically, the movie doesn't necessarily say that people should find a way to forgive or look beyond horrific acts a friend or loved one may have committed, only to make us understand why some people might do so. To that end, the movie demonstrates how one's personal experience with someone will often trump how we "should" feel about that person, even if it's clear that the person did some terrible things. The movie also functions as a methaphor for German society in the post-World War II years, where young Germans were repelled by what their parents and other respected elders did during the war, but yet simply couldn't shun and abandon them. "The Reader" looks spectacular on standard DVD (the image sports a perfect balance between sharpness and warmth) and there's a generous array of special features that further illuminate the thoughtful, emotional story. Definitely for mature audiences, "The Reader" is highly recommended for a night when you're in the mood for something a cut above mere time-passing entertainment.

5/5 A realistic view of the German dilemma.
  by Donald Liston (Girdwood, Alaska)
The Reader is a film made in Germany, by Germans and reflects a more accurate view of German attitudes than anything that has ever come out of Hollywood. It may not be what Americans have stored in their stereotypical vision of Germans being repentent and contrite after the war, but the Xenophobia and yearning for Lebensraum is still there in the hearts and minds of many Germans.
The acting in the movie is superb and caused the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to award an Oscar to Kate Winslet, but the acting must be based on truth rather than fantasy. This is film is NOT fantasy, it is history brought to the world's attention.

5/5 very good
  by Angela E. Hampton
it was a movie in which you could not help but think about it and analyze it for a couple of days.

3/5 Blah Oscar-bait
  by One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:

A decent film for its first two-thirds despite Kate Winslet's occasionally laughable accent, The Reader's lamentable third act turns what could have been a moderately-insightful film about German post-WWII guilt into a middling piece of Oscar-bait with a phoned-in performance by Ralph Fiennes and a whole bunch of contrived, artificial scenes; even in the weak year that was 2008 in film the idea that this middlebrow piece of filmmaking got a Best Picture and Director nomination is ridiculous.

2.5/4