The Reader

In post-World War II Germany, a Nazi cougar (Kate Winslet) gets naked with a young one, who reads to her. Then the young one grows up and watches Winslet stand trial for being a Nazi who personally helped kill hundreds of people. Then we learn she has a secret, which is both amazingly predictable and at the same time preposterously stupid. Then the young one grows up, becomes a lawyer, and shares a secret of his own with his daughter.

Some people think the movie is about German guilt. The young one knows that she is not revealing her secret during the trial, and he does nothing. This, people say, is like Germans during the Holocaust knowing what was happening to Jews, and yet they did nothing. They stood by. That may be what the filmmakers think it's about, but I'm not sure the film is about anything. If they want to explain, or excuse, or explore, what ordinary Germans did during the Holocaust, maybe the film should be about what ordinary Germans did during the Holocaust, and not what ordinary Germans did after the Holocaust. Just a thought.