Book v. Movie: The Reader

A movie adaption of a novel is a tricky thing.   Often times dialogue has to be created in order to make up for the lack of narration.  These lines are incredibly emotive and make character interactions much more dramatic than was necessary in the book.    Also, there is something to be said about actually being able to see the body language of a character and how that reveals more about their nature than can be done in a book.   

The film version of The Reader was very true to the story by Bernhard Schlink.  There was more emotive dialogue than was found in the novel, but again, it was necessary considering we could not hear the thoughts of the protagonist, Michael.   

Also, being able to see Hanna's facial expressions and body language directly, rather than just read the descriptions of Michael's memory, revealed more about her *true character* more quickly than in the novel.    

I asked my friend who had seen the film and had not read the book when she was able to detect elements of Hanna's character that had not been apparent to me until the end of the novel.  As I predicted, she understood certain plot points almost immediately.  It could be that I was just being oblivious! However, I'd like to think that had I not read the book, I too would have connected the dots early in the film.  Discovering Hanna's *true nature* later in the novel as an unexpected plot twist was much more fun for me.   Nevertheless, I enjoyed both the novel and the faithful film adaptation tremendously.