Stone Reader

A deep, exhaustive, and moving piece of do-it-yourself detective work.

A remarkable accomplishment, an absorbing documentary about the joy of reading that's also a positively gripping literary mystery.

We finally learn much more about Moskowitz than about Mossman, and more about Mossman than about his novel, but Moskowitz's passion for books is irresistible.

Enchanting and diverting documentary.

What Stone Reader offers that's new is its portrayal of reading not as a supremely civilized and soulful activity but as a lonely, thwarting and sometimes painfully embarrassing one.

There's a terrific short film somewhere inside Mark Moskowitz's feature-length documentary Stone Reader. Unfortunately, it's buried within a flabby 128-minute slog that feels like a rough draft nobody had the heart to edit down.

The film is a disappointment, and at more than two hours' running time, a very long disappointment.