The Word On... The Reader

"This film is emotionally inert. At the very least, it could be objectionable and offensive – I'd hoped it would be offensive, when I first heard the plot – but no, that would interfere with Stephen Daldry's Prestige Machine." - Tim Brayton, http://antagonie.blogspot.com/

"The first half of Daldry's drama is full of charged sensuality and compelling mystery, not to mention a number of extremely frank sex scenes. When David Kross gives way to Ralph Fiennes, though, something is lost, the British actor's reticence as the middle-aged Michael becoming emblematic of an emotional coolness that keeps the audience at arm's length." - Neil Smith, www. channel4.com/film

"'The Reader' is slow-acting poison. For the first third of the movie, you'll experience a not-unpleasant tingling in the extremities, giving way to an encroaching torpor. An hour in, your pupils will have shrunk to pinholes, and by the time the closing credits roll, you'll be capable only of a dim longing for the defibrillation paddles. Who'd have thought a movie about a beautiful, frequently naked female Nazi could be so dull?" - Dana Stevens, www.slate.com

"Reeks of Oscar-bait – a shamefully contrived series of manufactured dramatic scenes." - Alan Bacchus, www. dailyfilmdose.com