"What we feel isn't important. It's utterly unimportant. The only question is what we do. If people like you don't learn from what happened to people like me, then what the hell is the point of anything?"
"You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me."
"What we feel isn't important. It's utterly unimportant. The only question is what we do. If people like you don't learn from what happened to people like me, then what the hell is the point of anything?"
"It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead."
[This quote by the way has a parallel with what the Tom Wilkinson character said in Last Kiss...
"Stop talking about love. Every asshole in the world says he loves somebody. It means nothing. It still doesn't mean anything. What you feel only matters to you. It's what you do to the people you say you love, that's what matters. It's the only thing that counts." But I digress]
These dialogues should be enough to make you watch the movie, and savor… like that spicy seasoning.
The Reader is not a straight love story, but a brilliant movie that used an unconventional love story plot. Especially if youre allergic to love stories, we can just say that it's a movie with a beautiful story. Period. Not having a happy ending made it even more so.
And it is Kate Winslet who carried more than 50% of this movie. It could have failed without her. Ralph Fiennes and the younger Ralph Fiennes character handled their part of the deal.
Kate Winslet is pure versatility. There is not one trademark ‘Winslet acting…’ and this is good. She plays each role differently, and as they should be played. Say compare her character here in The Reader with the one in Eternal Sunshine. A definite Wow on the absolute disparity. Can someone measure how her brows furrow less to exhibit an emotion from a braver to a weaker character? Im sure she prepares well with a character study and all, not just getting ready for each take.
Then there is also grace and temperance. She doesn’t over-act, and it all appears effortless to her. (an equivalent for a man would be I think Robert Duvall). And most of all, I think she’s very brave in assuming unexpected, unconventional roles. I mean, if I were an actor, I'd be shaking to my deepest loins if Im asked to assume the challenges she had taken, not just because she had to be naked on some scenes, but also because anyone can easily fail miserably even in as simple as the accents of the personalities she played.
Amazing as well how she became the standard bearer of women with meat on their bones, unlike what Kate Moss and other images of bulimia propagated in the past three decades.
I don’t like Kate Winslet’s mole on her face though. But that's just stupid me, being distracted from time to time, while watching a master actress.
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