Learning from The Reader

I still insist that Meryl Streep should have won best actress for Doubt in the last Academy Awards.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t admire Kate Winslet’s performance in The Reader. I love her in her every scene and I love the movie even more.

Based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink, the story of The Reader covers several decades. It opens, however, in 1995 with lawyer Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) having flashbacks of the past and we return to 1958 Germany. Turning 15 (with the Michael character played this time by young actor David Kross), he meets that summer a woman (later introduced as Hannah Schmitz, portrayed by Winslet) who is kind enough to take him into her apartment when he gets ill on the way back from school. Despite their age gap (she is 36), they become fast friends and later, upon her initiation, lovers (she would have been labeled a cougar had she lived today). A highlight of their regular trysts is their regular reading sessions — with him reading to her books from school or borrowed from friends (Lady Chatterly’s Lover, which offends her).

One day, however, she just moves out of the apartment without her telling him. They lose contact and he doesn’t see her until he becomes a law student (we’re already in 1966) and she is among those tried in court for war crimes. It turned out that she worked as a prison guard in a concentration camp during World War II and becomes responsible for the death of some 300 Jews who perished in a fire. It is also here that we discover why she always made him read to her: She is illiterate.

After she is sentenced to life imprisonment, guilt eats him up because he feels he could have done something to save her in court — like prove to everyone that she can’t read nor write and couldn’t have written that report about the fire and therefore wasn’t in command when the incident occurred.

In later years, still consumed with guilt, he establishes communication with her and how he does it will move you to tears. From hereon, all the scenes are heart-wrenching and will melt even hearts of stone.

I will no longer waste this space by hailing the film for its greatness — because it is truly a masterpiece. The Reader is tightly woven and even if it jumps from decade to decade, it remains very cohesive. And Kate Winslet’s performance is spectacular — as a woman in her 30s and even three decades later when she is old and grey (especially with the very creative makeup they put on her). Even Ralph Fiennes is very impressive. Although he is not made to do much in most parts of the film, except to brood, he is at his best when he talks to the author of the book that revealed Nazi atrocities, particularly that one being blamed on Hanna Schmitz. The remorse and regret is all over his face and you really feel for him as he continues to deal with guilt.

I really could go on and on praising the movie, but what I will do instead is cite the lessons that could be learned from The Reader and here are a few:

• Let’s try to avert war — I know that this is not within your power as an individual, unless you are so charismatic you could lead a war on ideologies. But on our own, we should try to harmoniously co-exist with our neighbors and not discriminate against race, religion and even gender. In any war, there is no true winner and everyone becomes a victim. In The Reader, Hannah Schmitz serves as prison guard during the Second World War, but after that, she is the one incarcerated, a victim of circumstances brought about by that horrible war.

• Don’t take for granted our ability to read — This is for the young Filipinos of today, who do not read. Instead they while their time away swapping text messages that don’t require properly constructed sentences and where the spelling does not have to be correct. While there is still a percentage of illiteracy in this country, we basically all know how to read and write and even understand English. But we take that for granted. Read, read, read. This will further your knowledge. Hannah Schmitz sealed her fate and spent the good years of her life in prison all because she was too embarrassed to admit she was illiterate. We have the ability to read and write — let’s take advantage of that and put it to good use.

• If you feel you need to do something, don’t dilly-dally — do it now — Michael Berg felt he should have come forward and speak on behalf of Hannah during the trial, but he didn’t. As a result, she spent a long time in prison, while he becomes a prisoner of guilt.

• If you have to make a choice, it has to be for the good of everyone and not just for yourself — Hannah and the other prison guards were put in a quandary when the church where prisoners were kept caught fire after a bombing and they didn’t know if they should open the doors and risk a jailbreak or keep their jobs by letting everyone fry to death. They thought only of themselves and they later paid dearly for it, especially Hannah.

Even if the story of The Reader took place in the past, today’s generation can still learn from it. The lessons it imparts are very valuable and I hope you keep these in your heart and in your mind, along with the very poignant tale of the two ill-fated characters in this film.