The Reader Critic Reviews
Metascore®:
Based upon 15 Critic Reviews- Highest Rated
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Publications (A-Z)
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- Favorite Critics
After a sensuous introductory act, The Reader descends into a series of dismaying contradictions regarding the moral toxins of the Holocaust - which still pollute postwar Germany.Read the full review
The crucial decision in The Reader is made by a 24-year-old youth, who has information that might help a woman about to be sentenced to life in prison, but withholds it. He is ashamed to reveal his affair with this woman. By making this decision, he shifts the film's focus from the subject of German guilt about the Holocaust and turns it on the human race in general.Read the full review
The film is notable for its nice performances, its handsome photography, and its very active music. If the preceding praise sounds generic, so is the movie.Read the full review
It is only, frankly, the strength of Winslet's performance that rises above conventional surroundings and makes The Reader the experience it should be.Read the full review
The Reader is closer to a near miss than a rousing success but, on balance, this is still worth seeing for those who enjoy complexity and moral ambiguity within the context of a melodrama.Read the full review
Winslet's fierce, unerring portrayal goes beyond acting, becoming a provocation that will keep you up nights.Read the full review
A film made with high aspirations and more than the usual commitment but one that, after an arresting beginning, changes into a passive rumination.Read the full review
Slow-acting poison. For the first third of the movie, you'll experience a not-unpleasant tingling in the extremities, giving way to an encroaching torpor. An hour in, your pupils will have shrunk to pinholes, and by the time the closing credits roll, you'll be capable only of a dim longing for the defibrillation paddles. Who would have thought a movie about a beautiful, frequently naked female Nazi could be so dull?Read the full review
An engaging period drama. But German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject matter for the holiday season.Read the full review
The film is neither about the Holocaust nor about those Germans who grappled with its legacy: it's about making the audience feel good about a historical catastrophe that grows fainter with each new tasteful interpolation.Read the full review
