'The Reader' (R): Kate Winslet goes for broke in "The Reader," about a German woman with a hidden past connected to the Holocaust, which explains why she ended up as the winner of the 2008 Best Actress Oscar.

Based on the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink, "The Reader" begins in post-WWII Germany, where Michael Berg (David Kross), a teenage schoolboy suffering from scarlett fever, is saved by a woman more than twice his age. Returning to her house in an effort to thank Hannah, the two begin a summer-long love affair, which is accompanied by Michael reading books to Hannah. But one day, Hannah suddenly disappears, leaving Michael's heart broken.

Nearly a decade after the affair, Michael encounters Hannah again, but in the most disturbing of circumstances: Now a law student, Michael is shocked to find Hannah on trial for war crimes for her time long ago as a prison guard at a Nazi concentration camp. And it is at the trial where a past secret surfaces that will drastically affect the trial's outcome.

Winslet has never been one to be afraid of bare her soul in a part, and equally, baring her body. She disrobes quite often for "The Reader," since the torrid affair is integral to the plot of the movie. What's off-putting, though, is that for a time, this 30-something-year-old woman is having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy. It's amazing that the studio or director Stephen Daldry didn't break with the novel and make Michael older to avoid any backlash. It would be hard to imagine them holding steadfast with the 15-year-old scenario if the sexes of the characters were reversed.

The questionable scenario aside, "The Reader" is a compelling film at the outset of the trial, as Kross does his best acting in the film as a man struggling with his past. Ralph Fiennes is his usual brilliant self as Michael in his adult years and Winslet is masterfully subtle as Hannah, who's clearly torn by her horrific past.

While Winslet's performance may not be as good as her previous Oscar-nominated performance (she's much better in "Iris" and two films she should have been nominated for -- "Finding Neverland" and last year's "Revolutionary Road"), she's still a head and shoulders above most of her contemporaries.

DVD Features: Deleted scenes, production featurettes and more. (Genius Products/Weinstein Co. Home Entertainment)