At one point in Stephen Daldry's THE READER, a teacher tells his class that the key element of Western literature is secrets. People keep secrets for noble reasons or selfish reasons or to conceal shame. Sometimes the reasons aren't that clear. Michael Berg has secrets and so does his lover Hanna Schmitz. When they're revealed how does that change the way they look at each other and themselves?
Michael Berg, played as a young man by David Kross and as a grown man by Ralph Fiennes (THE ENGLISH PATIENT), was fifteen when he came down with scarlet fever. A kind trolley toll taker named Hanna (Kate Winslet, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD) helped the young man home. When he is well, he takes her flowers to thank her for her kindness, which begins his obsession with the thirtysomething woman, who loves to be read to. Their affair consumes Michael, but he can't reconcile his strong emotions with Hanna's casual feelings toward him. As these kinds of affairs often do, it lasted a mere summer, but had a profound effect on Michael throughout his life. During law school, he sees Hanna again, as an accused Nazi guard. This revealed secret shakes his worldview, and his view of himself.
Shame is the number one reason people lie. From the littlest lies to the biggest, we will do even worse things in an effort to conceal those shames. Many Germans did just this when they looked the other way during the Holocaust. This covering up of guilt trickles down from masking great crimes to masking petty embarrassments. Hanna has another secret that most likely lead her to take the job at the concentration camp. It is a secret she will do anything to conceal. Michael discovers the truth, which could help Hanna in her time of need. But to help her he would have to reveal his relationship with her. Would you defend an infamous murderer if you had information that would help their case? Your defense wouldn't justify what they had done; only fulfill correct justice under the law. But would anyone else see it that way? You can see how easy it is to do the wrong thing because you're afraid of what others will think of you.
In her Golden Globe-winning performance, Winslet shines as a fiercely proud woman, who is cold and frank. Hanna made moral bargains with herself to lessen her guilt, but it was only a temporary fix. In the end she relies on the same old justification — I was just doing my job. As a teen, Michael is an impressionable young man, who is emboldened with confidence by this first sexual experience. THE HOURS director Daldry uses a great deal of nudity, which underlines the soul opening experience the relationship is for Michael. It's something far less innocent for Hanna, even more so than a woman seducing a boy. Kross brings the right naivety to the character at first. His growing confidence is rocked at the trial, drawing him inward with shame. As an adult, he tries to make up for the wrong he committed because of that shame. So does Hanna. But no matter how evil or small our transgressions are, no matter how grand our gesture of penitence is, it never seems, or is, enough.
In the end, Michael goes to see a Holocaust survivor (Lena Olin, FANNY AND ALEXANDER) and she wonders why he is there. She cannot forgive Hanna, but that's not why Michael is there either. Fiennes' conflicted performance tells us about his character's feelings without dialogue. The real reason he's there is probably still a secret to him as well.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
