Saw 'The Reader'....

[FAST FRED]

....and recognized it as a very good movie, worthy of the five Oscar nominations it's received for Best Picture, Directing, Actress in a Leading Role, Cinematography and Screenplay.

Any film that receives that range of recognition must have impressed a lot of Academy members.

It may win any or all of those awards, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

My wife really liked it, but I found it slow and long.

It falls into the category of movies that I've watched and recognize as having excellence, but that I really didn't enjoy, such as "The English Patient," "Schindler's List" and "Out of Africa."

These movies certainly had parts that I enjoyed, just not enough to win me over.

Different strokes.

Spoilers ahead!!!!!













Kate Winslet gets to use a lot of her considerable acting skill in this dramatic showcase that features happiness, sadness, deception, tenderness, anger, authority, submission, nudity and sex, mystery, aging, courtroom tension, punishment, reunion, death and remembrance.

This one may win a whole handful of Oscars and, if so, that's fine with me.

I simply saw other movies this year that I liked better.

 

[RomaVicta]

There are interesting issues in the movie, but I thought it was largely a snoozer, too. I got bored with the reading and sex scenes in the first part pretty fast.

Big problem with the film: Central character who is reticent. My guess is that in the novel there are wonderful passages when the character is silent and paralyzed to do anything. In the movie, you just got a guy who looks troubled and is inactive.

I also think the story could have been more interesting if they'd alluded to the twist that comes later in the movie at the opening of the movie. It might have created a sense of mystery that would have made me more interested in the characters and what is to come.

After making a point of seeing Milk, Frost/Nixon and the Reader in the last two weeks, I've concluded it was not a great year for movies. It's a crime that Dark Knight is not up for an Academy Award.

 

[FAST FRED]

If I use my single breath to say I personally didn't like those movies, I think i'm allowed to do that.

I didn't say they were alike in any ways except that I recognized their excellence, but I didn't enjoy them.

That's the only way I compared any of them to "The Reader:" that I appreciated their worth, but they simply weren't my cup of tea.

"Sophie's Choice" is another movie in which I saw cinematic value, but didn't really enjoy.

So, in another single breath, I can also mention "Sophie's Choice," along with "The Reader," "The English Patient," "Schindler's List" and "Out of Africa," as a movie that I thought had recognizable cinematic excellence......but that I didn't like.

 

[Thunderhoof]

He's in The English Patient, too. This seems to be a trend...