the reader (2009)

empire magazine referred to "the reader" as "the epitome of middle-brow ‘quality’ drama", which sums up stephen daldry's film perfectly. while it wasnt particular bad, it wasnt anything great either. the lack of kate winslett surprised me greatly, and the higher than expected amount of ralph fiennes was appreciated, yet the film seemed to lack a powerful enough hook to really make it stick in the mind. the final years of hannah (winslett) and michael's (fiennes) friendship was incredibly touching, the sight of michael beginning his cycle of recordings especially, but beyond that the film was just average.