Not Best Picture: The Reader  

Cross posted here, with a formal review here.

The Reader swooped in and took the fifth slot for the Best Picture category, against other sorta-favorites like Revolutionary Road, Doubt, Wall-E, and The Dark Knight (am I missing any here?). It's just one of those movies that, while good on paper, is just kinda...a boring masterpiece on screen. There's no question that Daldry's vision of love and repentance, told against the backdrop of the Holocaust, is a feat. The movie is beautiful, slow, quiet, and delicate with complex themes of guilt and justice haunting Hanna and Michael's love over their whole lives. But really, you could've swapped in Rev Road or Doubt, and I wouldn't have even blinked. You could've swapped in TDK or Wall-E and made for a more interesting Best Picture category. And really, you could never see The Reader and your life really wouldn't be much different. I put it in a category I like to call "The English Patient Movies," which is funny seeing as I've never actually seen The English Patient. But it's just a group of movies that while I'm sure are all high quality, emotionally moving, and time-worthy affairs, I'm just not that interested in seeing it. Maybe some of them would rise above the pack and become favorites, but mostly I'm just sure that I'd get bored at some point in all of them.*

I'd go on about why I don't think The Reader should win Best Picture, but honestly. It's not going to. So why bother? Go see it if you want, it's a great movie, don't get me wrong. But if you haven't seen the others in this category, I'd knock them out first.

* Other movies in this category: The Piano, The Constant Gardener