29 Going on 79

I didn't know much about The Reader before I saw it, but I knew it had a Holocaust twist. Of course during the first 30 minutes I kept wondering where the Holocaust was and I had a million questions running through my head - questions about the time period of the movie and the background of the characters.

As it turns out, the story started in 1958 which was close enough to WWII that I couldn't quite tell whether the war was going on or not. Michael Berg is the main character and it is from his perspective that the story is told. While traveling home from school, Michael gets sick and is helped by Hanna Schmitz - Kate Winslet's character. Nevermind that she's probably 20 years older than he is and he clearly has an adolescent fascination with Hanna.

Told in three parts, the movie was kind of a snooze and somewhat confusing until the third part opens and all of my questions were answered. Just as the original author intended, I found myself trying to understand Hanna Schmitz and sympathizing for her plight. But at the same time I had to mentally remind myself of her horrible crimes. I've never been a big fan of the German "I was just following orders" excuse. She resigns herself to her fate and takes responsibility for her actions while the other horrid German women who served as guards are more than happy to let Hanna take the fall.

The fact that Hanna is likely more ashamed of her inability to read than her past as a Nazi guard at Auschwitz was seemingly foreign to my own experiences. But then again, that seems to be part of the human experience. We're always trying to hide something that often seems trivial to other. Thankfully my recurring Nazi dream didn't surface after watching The Reader!