The Reader begins in late 1950s Germany [Images], when fifteen-year-old Michael Berg (David Kross) is suddenly taken ill on his way home. As he throws up in the street and generally finds himself incapable of taking care of himself, a stranger cleans him up and helps him home.

Diagnosed with scarlet fever, he is bedridden for a few months but he doesn't forget the kindness of the stranger. When he is better he returns to thank his saviour who turns out to be Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet [Images]), a woman in her thirties who works as a tram conductor. His fascination with this oddly aloof woman blooms into a passionate affair and in the hours that they spend together, locked in the throes of illicit passion, she makes only one request of him --that he read to her.

During their dalliances through that summer he reads her classics by the likes of Chekov and Homer, ignores the advances of a pretty young woman his own age, and distances himself from most friends and family in his mad passion for this mysterious older woman. She disappears without warning one day and he doesn't see her again until eight years later when he attends the joint trial of six former Auschwitz camp guards as a law student. That is when he learns the truth about Hanna's past and changes the rest of his life.

Several movies have been made about events within and around the Second World War, Hitler [Images], and those who participated in the commitment of unspeakable atrocities. There have been serious-minded explorations of those dark times as well as escapist adventures highlighting the ineffectiveness of the people under Der Fuhrer's command. The Reader, only the latest in this long list of cinema, is based on a book. While it is possible that the text is a moving account of the events that transpired, the moving picture version is far less engaging.

If the actual romance between the older woman and much younger man is supposed to be shocking, it fails to translate as such. If Hanna Schmitz is supposed to come off as a woman more complex than any single facet of herself might indicate, that doesn't come through either. It is unclear why she chose to seduce the boy. It is unclear why she chose to be honest when the other guards didn't. Not a lot of the blame for this can lie with the actors though.

Young David Kross brings a surprising amount of grace and spine (not to mention confidence) to his performance as the boy, as well as the young man. Little is really expected of Ralph Fiennes in his barely-there presence, so little is delivered. Which means that the weight of this movie rests upon the squared shoulders of the leading lady, and now Academy Award winner.

Kate Winslet does her best to fill the shoes of an illiterate Germanic woman who was party to a great evil. In the way she walks, talks, and conducts herself -- through scenes of passion, anonymity and being judged by a roomful of peers, she works hard to help us forget that she is actually an international movie star. Even that is not enough.

It is difficult to believe that the man who helmed Billy Elliot is also the one who shepherded this mess to the big screen. That this movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture (of all those made in the past year) indicates that Hollywood's vaunted measure of cinematic excellence is no less flawed than the various homegrown awards shows that clutter our television bandwidth.

There has been some chatter about how the film was rushed through to theatres to make this year's Oscar cut. And yes it is true that this is the film that finally won Ms Winslet the award most coveted by actors around the world. Whatever the case, The Reader is still a movie that can best be summarised as 'when bad movies happen to good actors'.

Wait for it on DVD; shouldn't be too long before it gets there.

Rediff Rating: