Not much, but it should be a start. FoxNews (?!) has a little information about upcoming Oscarbait picture “The Reader” starring the always interesting Kate Winslet. Though details are sketchy, they seemed to really dig it. We’re not sure that FoxNews will ever become an authority on any film but for now we’ll take what we can get.
Based on the much-acclaimed novel by Bernard Schlink and helmed by director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) ‘Reader’ is one of two films coming out this fall that stars Winslet in a role that should generate some Oscar buzz. The film is the story of a tawdry affair between a fifteen year-old German boy named Michael and an older woman named Hanna. Years later, the now-adult Michael (played by Ralph Finnes) discovers that Hanna is being tried as a war criminal responsible for the deaths of nearly three hundred women during the Holocaust.
Fox praised the (apparently graphic) sex scenes between Winslet and David Kross (an eighteen year-old actor who learned English for this role) as having “sizzling chemistry” and say that Finnes “could not be better.” They reserved the greatest approbation for Winslet herself, saying that she is “…a revelation in “The Reader,” and quite different than in “Revolutionary Road.” That she could have both movies in one season is really the achievement. In “The Reader” she not only ages drastically, but she manages to convey with depth the emotions of a sexually voracious 40 year old and an embittered, incarcerated 60 year old. And, as it turns out, each of these personas also shares one more: a concentration camp guard with no regrets.” Wow…they go on to praise David Hare’s script and call this movie “the opposite of “Valkyrie” in its subject matter and intentions.” Pretty high praise coming from those hotheads. Anyway, this gets us even more excited for Winslet’s forthcoming movies.
“The Reader” is set for for a December 10 release.