Kate Winslet believed that the small set they used helped them to develop their character's strained relationship. Hailing Winslet as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation", David Edelstein of "New York" magazine wrote that "there isn't a banal moment in Winslet's performance—not a gesture, not a word". To avoid a scheduling conflict with "Revolutionary Road", Winslet turned down an offer to star in "The Reader". After her replacement Nicole Kidman left the project due to her pregnancy, Winslet was signed to it. Directed by Stephen Daldry, "The Reader" is based on Bernhard Schlink's novel "Der Vorleser" and is about Hanna
Kate Winslet agreed to the project to work with the director Alan Parker, whom she admired, and believed that the film raised pertinent questions about capital punishment. Mick LaSalle thought that the film had muddled the subject and disliked both the film and Winslet's performance. To avoid typecasting in historical dramas, Winslet sought out films set in contemporary times. She found it in the science fiction romance "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), in which she played the neurotic and impetuous Clementine, a woman who decides to erase memories of her ex-boyfriend (played by Jim Carrey). Unlike her previous assignments, the