This is the most gripping and thought-provoking film I've seen for a while, provoking lots of discussion. Excellent performances from Kate Winslett, Ralph Fiennes and the boy who plays him as a young student. The Berlin setting, from pre-war to the 80s is also very detailed and convincing. It really makes you want to read the book.

Sheila

Oh, I've just borrowed the novel on which is based, from a friend who recommends it (the book) very highly. Will look forward to seeing the film. She's in another film based on a book, isn't she, Kate I mean? With di Caprio.

Haven't seen the film but read the book and thought it was outstanding. You're in for a treat.

Apparently the ending of the film is different from the book.

Yes, I've seen the trailer of the other film with De Caprio a couple of times.It's directed by Sam Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes and is about the hollowness of American suburban living and what it does to relationships.It's called 'Revolutionary Road' but looks a bit overheated, with the stars shouting a lot at one another.

Interestingly, it's the wife who wants to move into a Bohemian life in Paris but he enjoys the power and status symbols of his white collar job. He's already done the underbelly of suburbia in 'American Beauty' which I thought was brash, but it won a lot of awards.

Sheila

I haven't seen the film, but loved the book. Disturbing and tenderly done.

s

The two reviews in The Observer and Sunday Times of the film aren't that great. I wish I could stop myself reading reviews.

Do you know why?

I was impressed by the moral ambiguities, which made you think all the time about the characters' motivations for acting as they did, although the characters themselves seemed real, three-dimensional people. They had this in common with the recent ' I've Loved You for a Long Time', where you were kept guessing about what Kristin Scott Thomas could have done,and what she was thinking.In a way it depended on presenting the same restrained, almost enigmatic acting on the part of the adult principals. Nothing was made explicit.

I like the way the plot widened from a personal into a political story and the parallels drawn between public and private behavious.

Sheila

I went to see it yesterday and thought it was excellent, but the end - the very, very end - was unsatisfying.

According to the Sight and Sound review the ending of the book was much bleaker.

Cosmo Landesman focuses on the sense of betrayal felt by the Ralpjh Fiennes character, which I think is entirely wrong, although given the changed ending maybe the director seeks to redeem him. Philip French thinks all the constituent parts are good but the film as a whole fails convince.

Sheila

I already don't want to see it. I should just avoid reviews. Something about having to watch them having sex. Which there's a lot of, apparently.

Yes, there was some sex but not a lot - maybe two scenes- and quite tasteful.Not prolonged. Oh, lots of nudity, now I recall, but that's not sex per se,is it? He sits in bed reading, with a blanket across his knees and she's lying with her back to us like the Rokeby Venus. I think it was meant to convey a sense of how comfortable they were with one another. It wasn't rude, though. One (sideways)shot of a penis. She's obsessed with bathing. There was a funny scene where the young man reads from 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' when they are in the bath together and she tells him to stop because it's indecent.

There's not one copy of the book held by Westminster libraries, which is very bad, in my opinion.It's won lots of awards - the book, I mean, not Westminster libraries. I got a book of short stories about fat people instead.

Sheila

I am happy to view shots of Kate Winslet naked. I have a bit of a cruch on her. Her and Diana from X Factor.

Oh,well,in that case you will definitely like this film. I haven't seen the other one you mentioned. Kate Winslet's bum is good but her breasts are a bit as you'd expect with someone who's had two children, so we see a lot of her naked back. There's one scene where she's lying in the bath talking to the boy sitting on a chair beside the bath and she's seen frontally from the midriff up, the water up to her armpits.The camera is on her for a while and occurred to me it was quite a good idea to do the shot with her supported, so to speak, by the water.

When I said the boy had a blanket across his knees I meant he was sitting in bed with with his knees drawn up and the blanket's around his lower half so all you see is his chest and arms. He has a puny, vulnerable look, and resembles Michael York in 'Cabaret'when Liza Minelli and that smooh guy were both taking advantage of him .There is another scene in The Reader where she gets to soap him all over with a flannel when he stands in the bath, but the profile shot of the dangly bit is only for a second or two in a different scene. Maybe it was to show what's attractive about him.

Quite a change from the old days, and the Hays code, which said they had to keep one foot on the floor for the bed scenes.

I saw the film with my son and husband and didn't feel embarrassed, but I have friends who are distressed by any nudity on film,so it is as well to be warned.

Sheila

Anyone seen Slumdog Millionaire yet? The film of the year, apparently. Not seen a bad preview of that one, at least not yet.

Well, it was one of the Gala Films at the London Film Festival, usually a good sign of quality . So far it hasn't been released in London but I've seen the trailer a few times at Cineworld. It looks a bit contrived, but you can't tell from a trailer. I saw a Spanish film with a similar story, but not so spectacular a contest. According to the CW website it will be released on the 9th January.

I still haven't seen one I want to catch about a famous Hollywood actor who accepts to play King Lear with a UK company and it turns out to be an amateur group. It has Imeda Staunton and other famous British stars. I hope it's still on.

Congratulations about your book, by the way, which I read about in your blog. Superb title. I'll look out for it in my local Waterstones.

Sheila