作为二战后一代的麦克对父辈罪责的矛盾心理,影片用一种汉姆雷特方式( to be or not to be )展示给我们:一方面麦克想告诉人们,他的父辈不识字, 是文盲,愚昧无知, 才做错事, 以减轻他们的罪责;另一方面他面对现实,认识到父辈们犯下的罪行, 和他们必须承担罪责。麦克经过一番内心的挣扎, 最后他选择了后者。用教他们识字的方式, 帮助父辈们认清他们的罪责。汉娜和麦克在监狱中的最后一场戏很有意思,麦克问她是否反省自己在战争中的行为, “我不知道你学到了什么?” 她回答,“我学会了阅读” 。尽管二战一代很固执, 嘴上不说, 心里还是深深的自责和后悔的。
The Reader is a good movie.温斯莱特获得了奥斯卡最佳女主角的奖 which was overdue. She had played well in several other movies (Finding Neverland, Little Children, and Sense and Sensibility) and got nominated a few times before finally winning the Oscar. So the Reader might not be her best performance. The Reader got an Oscar nomination partly because it's about Holocaust. The Hoycaust topic is alway popular in Hollywood.