DVD review: "The Reader"

Judging by box office receipts, "The Reader" was the Best Picture Oscar nominee that most people missed.

They'll get a chance to make amends when one of the best films of 2008 hits video this week. The erotic drama, which won Kate Winslet her first golden statue, is the tale of a 15-year-old German boy, Michael, who has an affair with Hanna, a woman two decades older during the late 1950s. Years later, he learns a terrible secret about her past that he chooses not to reveal, an act of omission that has a devastating impact on both their lives.

Directed by Stephen Daldry from a screenplay by David Hare (the same team behind "The Hours"), "The Reader" isn't a typical Holocaust movie. Rather, it explores how people live in the shadow of tragedy, and how guilt can be passed down from generation to generation.

There's no commentary track with the DVD, although the views of Daldry, Hare, Winslet and co-stars Ralph Fiennes and David Kross are well-represented in a healthy set of extra features.

There's a making-of documentary in which all of them speak at length, and an interview between Daldry and Kross (in which the 18-year-old actor expresses worry about his grandparents seeing him appear fully nude in the film). A look at how Winslet was aged 30 years via makeup is unexpectedly entertaining, including a bit where she goofs around with a fake breast. Also included are short looks at composer Nico Mulhy and production designer Brigitte Broch.

Finally, there's a substantial collection of 11 deleted scenes. Unlike most such excised material, which tends to be short and inconsequential, the extras include both longer versions of existing scenes and entirely new ones. All told, it represents more than 42 minutes worth of material never seen before. These include a clandestine visit by Hanna to Michael's house, an encounter with a truck driver with a past, and a much longer sequence of young Michael reading books to her, where their roles of tutor and pupil are reversed.

Movie: 4 stars
Extras: 3 stars

New this week: "17 Again" and DVD review of "The Reader"

Any critic who is afraid of holding an opinion that is outside of the mainstream, especially within the small circle of society that film critics comprise, isn't worth reading.

I had the pleasure a couple of months of ago in sitting in with Matthew Socey on his show "Film Soceyology" along with Lou Harry of Indianapolis Business Journal as we discussed the Oscars. They are two great guys whose opinion I respect enormously. And they both hated "The Reader."

Not just hated it, but were actually cracking jokes about it. So I had to be the guy who stood up (symbolically speaking -- we were all sitting) and say not only did I like the movie, I loved it, and in fact put it #3 on my Top 10 List for 2008.

Did I get some knocks for it from my colleagues? You bet, but that's what being secure in your own opinion is all about. Any one who would change or shade their opinion to elicit the approval of their peers -- well, I don't even have a name for what that is.

I'll be reviewing the DVD release of "The Reader" this week, so we'll see if the video package measures up to the flick.

The new movie of the week to be reviewed is "17 Again" starring Zac Efron in a comedy about an old person becoming young again.

Incidentally, I really wanted to review "State of Play," starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, since I like to see how movies portray journalists. But they're not screening it here, in another sign of how sorry the state of affairs is for Indiana-based critics.