---
title: "The Reader"
year: 2008
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-reader"
fi1m_score: 56
critics_score: 60
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-09-20T07:22:44.013265+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T07:23:15.996548+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Reader (2008)

Directed by Stephen Daldry · 2h 04m · MPA R · Drama, Romance

**Fi1m score: 56** · Critics 60 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* Adolescence, atrocity and a great many hot baths, all photographed at exactly the same temperature

> Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s novel is handsomely made and finely acted, above all by Kate Winslet and David Kross. It is also far too tidy about the questions it raises, and the tidier it gets the less we believed it.

## Synopsis

Berlin, 1995. Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes), a lawyer who leaves before breakfast, watches a tram go past and remembers 1958. He is fifteen then (David Kross), a schoolboy in a West German town, and he is sick in a doorway on the way home when Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), a tram conductor twice his age, washes his face and walks him back. Scarlet fever keeps him in bed for months. When he returns with flowers to thank her she takes him to bed, and soon sets a rule: he reads to her first, *The Odyssey*, *Huckleberry Finn*, whatever he is carrying, and then they bathe. He lies to his parents and to his friend Sophie (Vijessna Ferkic) about where he spends his afternoons. Hanna tells him nothing about herself. Then, one day, her flat is empty.

## Review

Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel asked how the German generation born after the war was supposed to love the one that fought it, and it asked through a fifteen-year-old boy and the older woman who takes him to bed. David Hare has adapted it and Stephen Daldry, after [*Billy Elliot*](https://film.one/film/billy-elliot) and [*The Hours*](https://film.one/film/the-hours), directs. The result is 124 minutes of careful, good-looking, well-acted cinema that handles the worst subject there is with clean hands and a steady voice. That is the achievement and it is also the problem.

The first hour is the good one. Kate Winslet plays Hanna as a practical woman with a short temper and a strong back, ordering the boy about, scrubbing him down in a tin bath as if he were laundry, and only softening when he opens a book. David Kross, who was a teenager when this was shot and looks it, gives Michael a face that cannot hide anything, which is exactly what the part needs. Their scenes are frank about sex in a way British films seldom are, and franker still about the ordinary pleasures of a summer afternoon with the curtains drawn. We were moved, sitting in the dark, watching Kross read [*The Odyssey*](https://film.one/film/the-odyssey) to a woman lying on the bed with her eyes shut, because for once a film about the twentieth century had found time to show two people being happy.

It is beautifully put together. Chris Menges and Roger Deakins are both credited with the photography and you cannot see the join: 1958 is all browns and yellows, steam on tiles, sun through net curtains, while the Berlin of 1995 is glass, grey water and the blue of an early morning nobody wanted. Brigitte Broch gives Hanna a flat with a stove, a bath and almost nothing else, and gives the older Michael a flat that looks unlived in. Ann Roth and Donna Maloney put Winslet in a conductor’s uniform and a slip and let the rest of the century happen around her. Nico Muhly’s score, mostly piano and strings, is spare and does not push, except in the courtroom, where it pushes.

The courtroom is where the film changes and where it goes wrong. Michael, now a law student in a seminar run by Professor Rohl (Bruno Ganz), is taken to watch a trial and finds Hanna in the dock. What she is accused of, we can say; the film is about the Holocaust and does not pretend otherwise. What the film then does with her we will not describe, except to say that Hare’s script turns a question with no answer into a puzzle with one, a single fact about Hanna that once produced makes everything line up. Schlink’s book knew the fact explained nothing. The film behaves as though it explains a great deal.

Behind the puzzle sits an idea the film seems to believe, which is that books make people better. Michael reads to Hanna; Hanna is a monster; therefore reading is what she lacked. The century in question is the best evidence against this that anyone has ever assembled, and a film set in it ought to know so. We came out of the second half irritated, not by the history but by how comfortable we had been made with it, and we are still not sure the film knows that is what it did.

Ralph Fiennes has the worst of it. He plays the grown Michael as a man with a permanent slight frown, and Claire Simpson’s editing keeps returning us to him in the middle of the 1958 scenes when nothing has changed except his expression. Lena Olin, in a late scene we will not describe, is the one person who refuses to take the film’s terms, and she is wary and exact and gone in five minutes. The film needed ten more of her.

Against Daldry’s own record this is the coolest thing he has made. *Billy Elliot* had feeling to spare and *The Hours* had more ideas than it could carry; this has taste, which is a virtue in a dinner party and a limitation in a film about mass murder. See it for Winslet and Kross and for the summer in the flat, which is close to lovely. Then argue about the rest, because the film has decided not to.

*Fi1m score 56, published 20 September 2026.*

### Reviews we read (14)

- **Screen Daily** (90/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a superbly fluid and elegant film that brings the source novel's melancholy and dilemmas intact with stupendous performances, especially from Kate Winslet, marking a step forward for the director. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/features/the-reader/4042148.article)
- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (4/5): The critic praises the unshowy screenplay, unfussy direction and impressive cinematography for faithfully capturing the novel's complex post-Holocaust themes of responsibility and forgiveness across generations. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-reader-1)
- **Total Film**, Jane Crowther (80/100, inferred): The adaptation is considered, articulate and intelligent, bordering on self-consciously classy, with force in the material and elegant performances, particularly from Winslet and newcomer Kross. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-reader-review/)
- **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): The critic notes the film is worthily and sensitively managed but objects to it as morally ambiguous and ponderous in places. Strong performances from Winslet, Kross and Fiennes are praised, along with the beautiful cinematography and attention to detail. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/winslets-a-winner-in-the-reader-7411862.html)
- **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (70/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's mix of sex, passion and message about redemption, noting Winslet's superb performance brings wounded particularity to the character of Hanna. Director and screenwriter battle the book's bipolarity in the first half. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/d369de54-d675-11dd-9bf7-000077b07658)
- **Sight and Sound**, David Jays (70/100, inferred): The critic finds relief in the pragmatic female protagonist compared to Daldry's previous work and praises the film's visual evocation of post-war Germany and its exploration of historical reckoning through the characters' personal stories. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/4726)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the lively nonlinear structure and tight direction engaging for a period drama about a coming-of-age affair and its aftermath, but notes German postwar guilt is not the most winning subject for the holiday season. Praises the performances of Winslet and Kross along with strong production values while emphasizing the moral complexities of confronting a perpetrator who was once a lover. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/reader-review-2008-movie-125129/)
- **Empire**, Kim Newman (50/100, inferred): Daldry's film is calculated for awards with outstanding performances but comes across as a cold fish, slow and middle-brow quality drama that is admirable within its limitations but not exactly cinema. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/reader-review/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (30/100, inferred): The critic argues that Daldry and Hare fail to thrillingly adapt the literary source, resulting in a stiff, external affair with clunky conventions, superficial shorthand, and schematic plot echoes that feel contrived and obvious. Acknowledges occasional bumps against universal tensions around altering the past but finds the film too refined and leaden to immerse in the protagonists' consuming confusion. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-reader/)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the adaptation of the novel shallow and glib in its handling of Nazi war guilt through a middlebrow sentimental-erotic fantasy. He singles out the grotesque final scene with the tea-can payment to a survivor as particularly insulting and toe-curling. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jan/02/the-reader-kate-winslet-film)
- **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (30/100, inferred): The film is a scrupulously tasteful but ultimately superficial treatment of an erotic affair and the Holocaust, making the audience feel good about a historical catastrophe through artful but empty gestures. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/movies/10read.html)
- **The Times**, Cosmo Landesman (30/100, inferred): The review notes the film raises interesting questions about post-war guilt and forgiveness but finds the explicitness distracting and the connection between books and moral literacy fatuous. Performances are solid but unexceptional, with Winslet competent but not commanding. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-reader-the-sunday-times-review-8w56nnkp38f)
- **Paste**, Jeremy Medina (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a somber, profound drama that respects literature and thoughtfully examines the moral aftermath of the Holocaust through its complex characters, especially Winslet’s performance. Some jarring issues with Fiennes’ scenes are noted, but shortcomings are few. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/stephen-daldry/the-reader)
- **Eye for Film**, Chris (65/100, inferred): The film is thought-provoking rather than yielding deep insight, with a screenplay that struggles to convey complex philosophical questions about guilt and the Holocaust through cinema's broad strokes. Winslet's transformative performance as Hanna, aging convincingly across decades, stands out as a highlight amid the story's emotional and moral complexities. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-reader-film-review-by-chris)

## Details

- **Director:** Stephen Daldry
- **Director:** Stephen Daldry
- **Screenplay:** David Hare
- **Cinematography:** Roger Deakins, Chris Menges
- **Editor:** Claire Simpson
- **Music:** Nico Muhly
- **Production design:** Brigitte Broch
- **Costume design:** Donna Maloney, Ann Roth
- **Producer:** Donna Gigliotti, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack
- **Cast:** Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg; Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz; David Kross as Young Michael Berg; Lena Olin as Rose Mather; Bruno Ganz as Professor Rohl; Jeanette Hain as Brigitte; Hannah Herzsprung as Julia; Karoline Herfurth as Marthe
- **Runtime:** 2h 04m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 30 January 2009
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2008); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2008); [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Nominee, 2008)
- **Budget:** $32 million
- **Box office:** $109 million

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming
- Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $4.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-20.*

Also available in: AU, BE, BG, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, IE, IN, IT, JP, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, SE, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2009: Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Actress (won)
- BAFTA Film Awards 2009: Best Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Direction (nominated); Best Film (nominated); Best Actress in a Leading Role (won)
- David di Donatello for Best European Film 2009: David di Donatello for Best European Film (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actor 2009: European Film Award for Best Actor (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actress 2009: European Film Award for Best Actress (won)
- European Film Award for Best Film 2009: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated)
- London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year 2009: London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year (nominated)
- MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance 2009: MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance (nominated)
- SAG Awards 2009: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (won)
- World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year 2009: World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year (won)
- American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases 2008: American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (nominated)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Film 2008: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Film (nominated)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress 2008: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (won)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer 2008: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (nominated)
- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress 2008: Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (won)
- Golden Globes 2008: Best Director (nominated); Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated); Best Screenplay (nominated); Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (won)
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress 2008: Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress (won)
- London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year 2008: London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year (won)
- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress 2008: Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress (nominated)
- San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress 2008: San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress (won)
- Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture 2008: Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 2008: Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Director 2008: Satellite Award for Best Director (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Film 2008: Satellite Award for Best Film (nominated)
- Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress 2008: Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (won)

## If you liked this

- *Phoenix* (2014), Fi1m 68: A survivor returns to post-war Berlin unrecognised; Petzold asks the questions Daldry answers too quickly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix.md)
- *Judgment at Nuremberg* (1961), Fi1m 82: Three hours in a courtroom with judges in the dock, and nobody let off. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/judgment-at-nuremberg.md)
- *Lacombe, Lucien* (1974): Louis Malle’s teenage collaborator, drifting into evil without a single explanation offered.
- *Little Children* (2006): Winslet again, in a suburb, wanting the wrong person and knowing it.
- *Labyrinth of Lies* (2014): Young Frankfurt prosecutors in 1958 discover their fathers’ generation, and start the Auschwitz trials.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-reader