“The Reader”
*** 1/2 RATING | Golden Globe winner Kate Winslet and German newcomer David Kross get searing close-ups in this stunning, spare adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s novel about desire, secrecy and German guilt. Fifteen- year-old Michael Berg’s world is dramatically changed when he begins an affair with 36-year-old Hanna. Their lovemaking scenes are lovely but frank. Their nakedness is pronounced in ways that force audiences to ponder nudity’s symbolic weight. Their ravenous desire takes a turn when Michael begins reading to Hanna. Michael’s life is upended again when he sees her years later. A former S.S. guard at a concentration camp, she is on trial for war crimes. Lena Olin portrays the mother in courtroom scenes. Later she does incisive work as the daughter, an author of the survivor memoir.
When the daughter receives Michael in her apartment, the scene is a hushed, poignant reminder of how the story never stops revealing its jarring meanings, its countless sorrows. R. 2 hours, 6 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“The Spirit”
** 1/2 RATING | This film version of Will Eisner’s groundbreaking comic series, “The Spirit” is a visual explosion ignited by at times campy acting and melodrama so thick it will hurt your teeth. It’s hard not to smile and grimace when one character tells a wounded partner: “Just shut up and bleed.” But the movie could not have been presented properly any other way. This film is about The Spirit’s (Gabriel Macht) unstoppable attempts to do good as he clashes with the never-ending evil of The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). PG-13. 1 hour, 48 minutes. Rick Bentley, McClatchy Newspapers
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