Men's love lingers despite the absence of women, maybe it's because of the pain that lingers helps the love to continue.
Women's ones don't really.
For Hanna, having one ceremonial good bye should be enough for the love Michael and Hanna shared... where she washed him and had one last sex.
And then she runs away, wiping the memory as well.
How selfish of Hanna trying to hold Michael's hand again when they met in prison.
How selfish of Hanna keep asking Michael to write her back.
Yes, she may be lonely and grateful to find Michael, but even after Michael showed signs of not being over the love they shared, she continued.
How foolish of Hanna to kill herself because Michael was embarrassed to welcome her.
How foolishly contended was he to take Hanna in his care again - although it's from his guilt of not saying the truth about her illiteracy during the trials.
Michael had to feel guilty throughout his life for keeping a secret that Hanna regarded as the most important.
Because he still cared for Hanna.
He still did even after Hanna killed herself, as Michael finally decides to share the innermost and the most meaningful experience in his life with others... including his daughter.
The movie also shows that life could be fair. The Jew survived Auschwitz was living rich in the U.S., when Hanna was sentenced for life imprisonment without family or friend.
Overall superb acting by Kate, although her make up when she was old was not so smooth.
She always have been a superb actress, and she deserved the Academy out of this one.
4/5
PS: I am not sure if I want to read the book, I might be missing details, but I don't want to indulge in romance now too much. I will just buy and shelf it, in case if I ever want to read the original.
PPS:
I tried to rethink of the movie,
maybe it was Hanna's way of loving?!
She left Michael in the first place, maybe because she figured out that she has become a big part of the boy's life and could hinder his life? Maybe...
Maybe, she killed herself in the same reason, thinking that Michael had a stable life that could be disrupted by her presence?
But, it's still selfish of her deciding everything on her own with complete disregard for others.
Doing whatever she thinks is right as if she has the omnipotent power over Michael.
My thoughts are becoming short these days. Still need to find peace.
I need to do it ASAP before another study season starts in a couple of weeks.
PPPS:
I came to doubt if there was any emotional attachment between the two.
At first, they were connected because of sex.
Nothing else was between them.
As she left, I wonder if Michael was upset for losing his love or coz of his pride getting hurt.
Michael perhaps would have been fine and be not as introvert if he had not met Hanna again in the courtroom.
It was guilt of Michael more than love that made him to read out books to Hanna in prison.
Guilt for making Hanna to undergo a life imprisonment.
For Hanna, it was perhaps just loneliness but not love - as she was entertained by Michael's tapes in the prison. I feel it's nothing about love now.
This movie was perhaps about secret of the guy for having an affair as a 15 year old with older women;
a secret of the guy who knew Hanna was going life imprisonment for him not standing up and revealing the woman's secret;
a secret of the woman as she is illiterate;
and a secret of the woman as a guard in Auschwitz, who had to watch many Jews die.
Maybe it's just about these secrets and shameful past that everyone has.
Pretty confusing movie.
I gotta read the book.
