Kate Winslet stars in ‘The Reader’

Movie: "The Reader"

When: Opening Friday at local theaters

Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross

Director: Stephen Daldry

The story: Years after a teenage fling with a Berlin tram conductor who disappeared, a young law student finds her again -- on trial for war crimes as a Nazi concentration camp guard.

The buzz: Bernhard Schlink's controversial 1995 tale, the first German novel to top The New York Times best-seller list, reaches the screen thanks to director Stephen Daldry and playwright David Hare, who previously collaborated on another adaptation of a difficult literary property: Michael Cunningham's "The Hours." Nicole Kidman won a best actress Oscar (as Virginia Woolf) in that 2002 release; some Oscar watchers expect Kate Winslet to score double nominations for "The Reader" and "Revolutionary Road" (her reunion with "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio), which is scheduled to open in Las Vegas theaters on Jan. 16.