The Reader (2008)
Had I seen the trailer for The Reader earlier, I would certainly have watched this film much much earlier also. The trailer captures so much of the essence of this film – a struggle of the mind, heart, conscience, morality, justice… It’s a deeply provoking film.
Besides the usual praise lavished on the excellent story and the superb performances, there are two points I would like to discuss regarding this film.
The first is regarding the pivotal line “societies think they operate by morality… but they don’t – they operate by law.” Indeed, the love relationship of the film’s two leading characters aside, this is certainly one of the film’s core messages. The teacher further goes on to comment on some of the specific principles – laws should not be retroactive, i.e. a person should only be judged by the laws in place at the time of his act. While the film does not explicitly advocate it, it seems quite clear that Hanna is not guilty if we employ this train of thought.
Which brings us back to the original line itself. As I have recently been reading The Constitution of Liberty, I couldn’t help but relate to Hayek’s core arguments presented in that book regarding the Rule of Law. As Hayek argues, society’s sincere but arbitrary wish for “justice” and “morality” only results in arbitrary coercion of individuals (and hence infringement upon the people’s freedom), since there does not exist any solid guidelines of what is moral and what is not. Hanna’s situation in the film is certainly a very good example for discussing this issue – perhaps she is guilty of negligence in work, but guilty of murder? Certainly it seems that society’s wish for moral justice has in this case led to an arbitrary verdict against the principles of the Rule of Law – the consequence of which is that if such arbitrariness is accepted as norm, then society would lose its protection of freedom.
The second point, and a much lighter topic than the above discussion of liberalism (which, by the way, I strongly recommend reading Hayek’s work itself if you’re interested), is regarding the music in this film. Generally speaking, I’m sort of a fan for minimalistic soundtracks – I think it’s brilliant if a film can sway the audience without resorting to theatrical scores to stimulate the senses, (for example No Country for Old Men, where no music was used but the film was thoroughly chilling and nerve-racking). However in The Reader‘s case, I’ve been absolutely won over by Nico Muhly’s score. It is heartbreakingly beautiful, and it seems to be singing out the unsaid emotions of the characters. Magnificently done.
Combining these elements together – the intriguing story, the question of political philosophies, and the beautiful score – and you have a film close to masterpiece.
9/10