As promised, here're few more review comments on David's performance in "the Reader"... These are reviews posted by reputable critics as well as fan blogs (such as matchflick.com)
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From Matchflick.com
January 9th, 2009
….The one performance that might come across as the most underrated in the wake of the praise she deserves is the one given by David Kross as the young Michael Berg. Throughout all the scenes he has with Kate, he more than holds his own with her as he conveys the hell of an emotional turmoil that he is forever going through both as a teenager, and later as an adult. In retrospect, David really has the hardest role in the entire movie as he has to convey many things about his character without saying a word. We know why Michael is going through so many conflicting emotions, but the characters around him don't know that. On top of that, they cannot know as that would implicate Michael in a situation that he will not ever be able to escape from. I have not heard of David Kross before, and I am interested to see how he got the role in the movie. His performance is nothing short of astonishing.
Boxoffice.com
by John P. McCarthy
December 10, 2008 1:37 PM
….Young Kross impresses with his acting ability. He’s able to register multiple emotions and thoughts—some that are complicated, especially during the trial scenes in the film’s middle stretch, and some that are less complex, like lust and first love. Ironically, being naked for so long during the movie’s first third probably made the latter more, not less, difficult to project. The same is true of Winslet, tackling what should rank as the most difficult and unsympathetic role of her career (rivaled only by her turn as a miserable suburban wife in Reservation Road). She succeeds in articulating two sides of Hanna: tender lover and officious guard.
Themovieboy.com
Reviewed by Dustin Putman, December 8, 2008.
….As the young Michael, David Kross is highly appealing and, faced with some explicit sex scenes and nudity for a 17-year-old (at the time of filming), decidedly brave. Kross takes Michael from a fumbling teenage boy to a wiser, more hardened young man in graduate school, and the stark contrast with which he portrays this character at two distinct ages is impressive.
Palo Alto Online
January 2, 2009
…Winslet is heartbreaking but Kross is a true revelation as he ages from love-struck innocent to jaded, and perhaps permanently scarred, manhood.
Roger Ebert
December 23, 2008
…(the Reader) is powerfully, if sometimes confusingly, told in a flashback framework and powerfully acted by Winslet and Kross, with Ralph Fiennes coldly enigmatic as the elder Michael.
Total Film
January 2nd, 2009
By Chris Hicks
…But the real surprise is the fact that Winslet’s precise performance is matched every way up by Kross. The 18-year-old German actor manages to convey love, lust and torment with barely a twitch of his fresh, open face. Together they fashion a relationship of virtue and love, and it’s these early scenes as much as anything that retain viewers’ sympathy when the going gets tough.
Denver Post
By Lisa Kennedy
“A soul-rattling first love affair”
12/25/2008 09:14:15 PM MST
Kross ..making an exceptional English-language debut.. Michael is sensitive, tentative, but he is not a child. Kross' performance helps tamp somewhat our discomfort with their ages. Hanna is 21 years older.
