On "The Reader"

From The Dispatch:

Hanna’s impact on Michael isn’t necessarily positive, but she gave him his first taste of love, and it is something he never forgot. And in the end, we realize Hanna is little more than a child herself. There is an innocence about her that is well-hidden but ever present, always tied to the secret she so desperately wants to conceal. The film never excuses her actions, and that is the central conflict at the core of “The Reader.” How does one reconcile great atrocities with personal feelings? When Michael finally meets with a Holocaust survivor under Hanna’s watch (memorably played by Lena Olin), the film digs deep into moral gray areas that are quite unusual in films that deal with the Holocaust. We are asked to consider where the line is drawn between hero and monster when all the lines are blurred and nothing is certain.

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