Reader

The Reader is the second movie that I watched this year. The first is the slumdog millionaire, which I have discussed in my previous blog. I have to say that I run into that movie. Before I watched it, I didn't know it is a movie praised by many people.

The Reader is different. I watched it is because there are numerous people recommending it on mitbbs. I watched it three times. The first time, I was quite impatient. The movie did not seem to attact to my attention. I was working on my papers the half of the time. The story appeared to be plain: a teenage boy, Michael, had a lover, Hanna, who used to work for Nazi army. The boy met his lover in a trial, when she was accused of being responsible for hunderds of deaths.

I watched it the second time, after I read more movie reviews. Some people say this movie is about the first time lover, and how unforgetable the first lover could be. After I watched it again, I couldn't figure it out whether Michael made those tapes is because he still loves Hanna. Or he was tortured by guilts for giving up a chance to save Hanna. After all these years, his brain tells him that Hanna was guilty, but his heart says differently.

The second time seemed to be quite unsuccessful. I couldn't decide if I should give up. Someone mentioned that this movie is about German generation gap. I bet those Germanese after the war were entirely confused. They, once the best "species" on earth, turned into criminals in one night. If the movie tells the story from this angle, it must be interesting. Maybe I should give it another tril. Then I watched it the third time. I calibrated my view and hoped that I enjoy this movie was much as other people. However, after watching it for three times, I was still quite confused. I knew the movie tried to lay out the struggles of Michael who tried to comprehend the incomprehensible thing. This struggle was, however, triggered by love. It made you doubt that if the German generation after the war had opportunity to have this kind of struggles or they were already given an answer. Who would want to puzzle themself if an answer was given.

Ok. this movie must be a good one since many people cried after they watched it. However, when I watched it, I was analytical. This is not right.....I was not supposed to be analytical. I should be emotional, tearing, out of my mind...or something more dramatic...

Anyway, I conclude that the Reader is not my type of movie. I will read the novel, and hopefully perceive this story from the right angle.