Jim was busy so Jan and I decided to watch a “chick flick” for Movie Night. All day we emailed a list back and forth, which came down to:
- Victoria & Abdul
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Loving Vincent
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Beaches
- Girls Trip
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Legally Blonde
- Clueless
In the end we saw The Reader because it popped up as a Netflix suggestion and, well, why not?
The premise of the movie was an affair between a15 year old Michael, played by a very young looking actor, and a 30-something Hanna, played by Kate Winslet. We saw Michael as an adult, played by Ralph Fiennes after he watches her on trial for Nazi war crimes as a law student, then later, he records books to send to her in prison (hence the title.)
The movie was surprisingly excellent, considering we had no expectations. We were both uncomfortable with the big age difference and especially the youth of Michael in the beginning with full nudity. The same actor played Michael in law school so maybe he wasn’t quite as young as he looked? I found this reference in IMDB, “To avoid legal consequences, the crew delayed the filming of sexually explicit scenes until after actor David Kross‘ 18th birthday on July 4 2008.”
Turns out it wasn’t a chick flick at all and Jim would probably have enjoyed it. Jim and Chelsea arrived from their drive from Florida a few minutes after it ended and Chelsea enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies which Jan had kindly brought over as a “welcome home” treat.