“Excellent!  One of the best films of the year!”

“Superb and excellent film.  A film of moral ambiguity with secrets of shame and guilt, a complex love story.”

“A great movie.  A fine story by a wonderful guest and so important on many levels for everyone to see!  Thank you, John!”

“A great film.  It will stay with me for years.  Superbly conceived, crafted and directed.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more sensitive and empathetic pair of characters.  What a truly uniquely wise film!  Thanks!” Jeanne

“The best movie of 2008, by far!”

“Beautiful movie.  Throughout the entire movie the actors felt the weight of pain.  If felt like a secret and the sense of burden.  Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes and David Kross were absolutely marvelous.  Stephen Daldry again interprets human emotion to the ‘T’ combining all elements script and acting.  I felt the guilt and burden of past.  The interpretation was beautiful.  I was moved emotionally.”

“Excellent interpretation of an extremely fine novel.”

“Simply excellent!”

“Excellent is not a high enough rating.”

“Thank you for such an adult movie.”

“The movie does a terrific job of amplifying moments, questions and issues that are only hinted at in the book.  Moments and questions like: ‘what did you learn?’ which Michael Berg asks Hanna in the prison scene and then the Lena Olin character asks of concerns of concentration camp survivors like herself at the end.”

“A beautiful, sensual film that captures a complex love affair between two people in which their differences in age caused a differential in their moral fiber.  The fact that one endured the horrors of being a guard during the Holocaust creates a situation which the other does not understand.  A deeply moving film that delves into the complex understanding of love and how love is eternal, no matter how strongly it is tested.”

“An amazing film!  I loved it.”

“A little bit too choppy for me.  The actor who played young Michael was fantastic.  There were more layers that needed to expand.  Perhaps the book would be more entertaining.”

“A wonderful cast.  Winslet, Fiennes, Ganz and the young man who played young Michael in a sensitively told story.  The scene in which justice and law are discussed as different entities was very interesting.  Five women were found guilty of complicity in the deaths of 300 women and received sentences of four years imprisonment.  That struck me as not justice and very lenient law.  The guest was so interesting and intelligent.”

“A superb and important film about personal responsibility, morality, law and the passing of history to following generations.  A magnificently developed film from acting, scenery, dialogue and concepts.  Should win many awards!”

“Wow!”

“This is as superb an adaptation of a novel to the screen as I have ever seen (and I’ve seen quite a few in my years). Capturing the essence of a youth and contrasting it with the realities and responsibilities of surviving in an often-cruel world - and showing it by her illiteracy - is a brilliant story device, transferred seductively to the screen. Every character is spot on perfect. One more reason why there should be an ensemble Academy Award."

“Loved the book.  So simple with so many layers of shame, quilt, coming of age and betrayal.  Great job of casting and quite a complement to the book!  Bravo!”

“The shadow of a relationship that you can never shake as the shadow of events that are ingrained in our memory.”

“Sex overwhelms the reading connection of the book.  How come Michael has unrestricted access to the prison camp?”

“Deeply moving.”

“A great film!  I see an Oscar in Ms. Winslet’s future!”

“Overall an outstanding film!”

“A stunning rendition of the book.  The acting was outstanding by all.  The screenplay was excellent.  I had less of a sense of Michael’s inner thoughts in the movie than in the book.  I guess the screenwriter wanted to leave that to the audience.  There is so much to think about on so many levels, human, social, psychological, emotional and philosophical.”

“Wonderful film.  Rarely does a film do justice to a novel.  This film has succeeded.”

“I have a friend who is the daughter of a Nazi soldier.  He claims he only became a Nazi to save himself and his family.  This is such a complicated issue.  How could the German population not know?  This movie highlighted the complexities of individuals who learned…slowly…of the horrific, unimaginably atrocities.  Hannah felt the guilt as such a heavy burden, she needed to punish herself.  The mystery was beautifully exposed near the end.  I loved this film and its way of taking its time to unfold characters and their motivation.”

“Utterly heartbreaking!  Beautifully moving.  For me, it was a study in ambivalence!”

“Brilliant story of conflict and hidden secrets that further the conflict.  I didn’t realize the difficulties between the two German generations were so strong.  I learned as much from the author as I did from the film.”

“The best film you have screened this year.”