The Reader

I recently watched this movie and I found it to be beautifully filmed and relatively close to the book. For those of you who are not aware; the book is about a young German boy of 15, he has a chance encounter with a woman in her 30's. The two form a relationship and a large part of it is the boy Michael, reading various books to the woman, Hannah.

The relationship lasts about 3 months, a typical summer, then after an argument Hannah mysteriously disappears. There is no explanation of her disappearance and Michael is left to wonder where she went and if her departure was in large part due to him.

Years pass and they meet up again under most disagreeable circumstances. Without giving anything away Michael figures out a secret that Hannah has struggled to hide. If he were to reveal said secret he could potential save Hannah's life. His torment is that she has gone to great lengths to hide this secret from the world and in fact is willing to admit to things she never did in order to keep it a secret.

Long story short: Husband was over it at this point he still watched the movie but he said he "lost all respect" for the main character. I am not so sure what I would have done. I would like to think I would do the right thing and tell the secret even though the other person would be annoyed with having it exposed. It would obviously be for the greater good. (This is Husband's stance) Most likely however, I would chicken out....keep the secret because that is what the other person wants to do and then, just like the book/movie, have a strange resentment toward the person when the reality of the situation comes to light for me.

The question is this: What would you do? If you knew someones secret...something they were so ashamed of the would risk looking like a monster to avoid facing up to the truth (which to you seems mild in comparison) If you knew telling could potentially save their life would you tell? Or would you respect their wishes, keep their secret, then begin to despise what they became as a result?

Deep stuff