The Reader

"Stephen Daldry's film is sensitively realized and dramatically absorbing, but comes across as an essentially cerebral experience without gut impact."

"Pleasingly adult material powered by elegant, muscular performances. A strong adaptation of a slippery novel."

"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."

"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."

"Bloodless adaptation of a good novel is almost rescued by Winslet at her best."

"A thought-provoking and incredibly rewarding five star watch."

"It is only, frankly, the strength of Winslet's performance that rises above conventional surroundings and makes The Reader the experience it should be."

"An engaging period drama. But German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject matter for the holiday season."

"The epitome of middle-brow 'quality' drama -- admirable within its limitations, but Bernard Schlink's Oprah Winfrey Book Club-approved book wasn't exactly literature, as this isn't exactly cinema."

"As both an intellectual and emotional experience, this perfectly realised movie is one that will stay with me for a long time."