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 role allowed her to display the quirky side to her personality. Gondry encouraged Carrey and Winslet to improvise on set, and to keep herself agile she practised kickboxing. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" proved to be a modest financial success and several critics regarded it as one of the best films of the 21st century. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" considered it to be a "uniquely funny, unpredictably tender and unapologetically twisted romance" and thought that Winslet was "electrifying and bruisingly vulnerable" in it. A journalist for "Premiere" magazine credited her for abandoning her "corseted English rose persona", and