Stolen Innocence

This film crosses a few boundaries and takes your mind with it.

Kate Winslet deserved her Oscar for this film, because that girl can act. Ralph Fiennes as always did great work and I am hoping to see more films with David Kross, because he too can act!

The film almost immediately starts with a relationship between a boy of 15 (Kross) and a woman of 35 (Winslet). Michael (Kross) starts vomiting in the street after leaving school. Hanna (Winslet) offers him help before he wanders home to discover he has Scarlet Fever. Once he is healed he tells his mother of the encounter and it is implied that he must thank this strange woman. He shows up to her apartment and she demands that he fetch two pails of coal for the fire. He ends up a mess from doing so, and she insists that he must bathe before going home. This is where you find the first romantic encounter between the two, and the first boundary crossed.

As the film evolves you become a bit more settled into the relationship between Michael (Kross) and Hanna (Winslet), and appreciate the fact that he reads to her. It's quite melodious. However...

His life has taken a hit. He becomes withdrawn from his family and friends. Then Hanna (Winslet) abandons everything. Her job, her home, Michael (Kross), and for what? The second boundary crossed.

The third boundary is the most incredible, and it is at this point your heart starts to ache a little. The trial.

It is here you can determine the relationship was unfair. While Hanna seemed to have genuine affection for Michael, she stole something that did not belong to her. It makes you question if she was capable of feeling. She stole his innocence. Something he will never get back and never recover from. The rest of the film unfolds into this heart wrenching twist of events that further leads Michael down a path he will never come back from.

This film makes you sick to your stomach and at the same time it's a must see. It's very well done and the plot is uniform. It will make you start to sympathize with things you hate, and just when you start to do so, another detail jerks your mind back to where it needs to be.

Leave the popcorn behind and replace it with a box of tissues.