It's been 6 years since Stephen Daldry gave us The Hours and it seems almost improper that he and Sam Mendes (both darlings of theatre in the 1990s) have given us a combined total of 7 films in the decade that they have both been making films. His third film is The Reader, which stars Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz; a woman who embarks on an affair with a 15 year old boy called Michael in post-war Germany. The film chronicles that affair and the fall-out afterwards, with the grown up Michael being played by Ralph Fiennes (in the middle of a banner year with his performances in this, The Duchess and In Bruges).

The film is structured strangely, we open with Michael in 1995 and have a lengthy flashback of over half an hour to the affair with Hanna, then the interweaving of various timelines become more frequent. It's almost the opposite of Un Secret  in that respect as that film had lots of strands and then narrowed focus as the film went on. There is a lot of nudity and sex in the opening 40 minutes of the film and it is rather austere in the way it is shot (to the point of ridiculousness at times). That said though by the end, when years have passed and when the clothes are firmly on it is only then that it gets romantic and while providing a moving finale to the film it does belie the coldness of the beginning.

Kate Winslet & David Kross

Winslet gives a committed performance, which gets better the longer the film goes on. Fiennes is good in his role as the older Michael portraying the repressed, closed off nature of his character as is his calling card. Lena Olin was especially noteworthy in a couple of scenes, Bruno Ganz gave solid support and Alexandra Maria Lara absolutely wasted in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. David Kross has a very difficult role as the young Michael and he does what is needed of him, but he's not a standout.

Overall the film is at times very predictable but on occasion they take things in areas you wouldn't necessarily imagine. The last half an hour or so is very romantic and could have been even more moving than it is by going for some very simple, obvious visuals or comments, but they shy away from that. It does bring up some interesting areas of debate vis-a-vis guilt and responsibility, it does explore the impact a person can have on the rest of your life and I do think it's a very good film. I just don't think Daldry handled it quite as well as he did The Hours and I think they rather missed the boat in the groundwork they did at the beginning of the film. Minor quibble though, this is a moving, pensive, mature drama which I'd recommend as I'd expect a lot of people to admire it, even if few will "enjoy" it.