THE READER 3.5*** This is about a “coming of age “story… it’ll remind you, but only briefly, of the context of “The Summer of 42” in that it’s about a thirty or so year old woman and a fifteen year old sexual novice ; it’s about the Holocaust and those ordinary civilian German people who participated in certain monstrous events during the war and those post-World War II Germans who were either in denial or mystified about how such horrible things could have happened; and it’s about great pride and shame and how they can cause painful, unforgettable consequences.

It’s the summer of 1958 and Michael (David Kross), a young teenager meets by chance Hanna (Kate Winslet), a hard working woman who is twice his age. What begins innocently enough soon escalates into a seductive, forbidden affair that intensifies when Michael begins reading books to the distant, empty Hanna, who is deeply awakened by Michael's spoken literature, Michael is emotionally devastated when Hanna suddenly disappears. Nearly a decade later, unable to forget his passionate summer, and while studying law, he attends a Nazi war crimes’ trial, and to his shock and dismay, sees Hanna among several German women on trial for crimes committed while they were guards at a Jewish concentration camp. Surprisingly, though, "The Reader" isn't about her exposure as a war criminal but as an ordinary individual who took the wrong path. She's not an evil person. She simply made wrong choices. However, those bad choices become greatly magnified when they result your being involved in the Nazi's liquidation of the Jews… then it’s how much "wronger" can it be.

"The Reader" is a film that is driven by its raw, stunning performances. In one of her finest hours, Kate Winslet gives the performance of a lifetime. It's a haunting and heart-breaking. David Kross, who was only 18, is impressive as the teenager with raging hormones. Winslet and Kross bring this picture together and elevate it to a lofty level . Their performances are jaw-droppingly brilliant.

This is a serious drama for grownups only. It well deserves its "R" rating due to the explicit sex scenes including full frontal male nudity . But it is quite thought provoking well beyond the movie experience itself. And how you interpret the characters and whether you feel pity or scorn or both for either of them depends on your own personal assessment of their guilt and the shame and pride that motivated their decisions.

Clark