"The Reader" thoughtful and sublime

I'm still reeling a bit, having just come from the theater, as The Reader certainly gives moviegoers a lot to mull over...if they choose to, that is.

I went into the Grandin Theater, which was packed to the gills, having heard very little about the film - not a preview or a review. I liked it that way, since I was pretty convinced, given the actors and the buzz it has already generated, that it wasn't going to be a waste of my time.

The movie really is a pleasure: perfect timing, witty, and with a solid flow that carries you through the spectacular sets. The jumps from this time to that might confuse some people, though I was able to follow along.

The subject matter, which my speaking of should betray very little of the film's plot, surrounds questions of justice and redemption after Nazi Germany: not exactly brand new content for Hollywood.

I must say that some judgments made in the film, notably by protagonist David Kross (younger Michael) and Ralph Fiennes (older Michael), surprise me. In life and film, I find that judgment should be reserved to the law, and that whatever judgment the law makes is as far as anyone can judge the guilty - or else, for what, indeed, do we have law at all? Granted, this comes from someone who has been blessed by not having to make choices of who deserves redemption and who does not.

More to the film, the various zeitgeists portrayed through several key periods in our recent history are quite well done, and - while I wasn't looking for any - I found no anachronisms to speak of.

Suffice it to say that Reader is well worth watching and thinking on, so much so that I intend to read the book as well, though I'm not in the habit of reading books after movies (to be clear, the book did come first).

So, while pivoting off of a trite plot of post-Nazi Germany, Reader is fresh in its ideas and invites viewers to devise much of the unraveling for themselves.