Every year, when the Oscars roll around, we may get upset for not managing to see all of the nominated films before the awards are handed out. But March and April are like our cinematic do-over period, and "The Reader" is the latest nominated film to join the ranks of DVD.

Based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink, which had the good fortune of being anointed by Oprah's Book Club, "The Reader" ticks all of the prestige film boxes. It's a literary period film touching on the Holocaust directed by the guy who made "The Hours."

Perhaps its biggest trump card of all is that it stars Kate Winslet, an actress who seems contractually obligated to pop up in at least one Oscar flick a year.

The good news is, "The Reader" lives up to its pedigree, as a three-hankie emotional haymaker that delivers. While Best Actress winner Winslet is the marquee attraction here as Hanna Schmitz, the film is really the story of a teenage German boy played by fantastic newcomer David Kross, who tumbles into a passionate, secret affair with Schmitz. He reads "The Odyssey" to her before rounds of steamy lovemaking, and she kickstarts his transition into manhood. Then, Hannah up and vanishes and breaks his young heart.

Flash forward several years and the boy is now a law student who rediscovers his first love, under serious old-age makeup - catnip for Academy voters. Schmitz is put on trial for war cries committed as a guard at Auschwitz.

An icy Ralph Fiennes plays the older version of the boy, framing the film's flashbacks and he aces what little he's given. But it's Winslet you'll remember after the closing credits.

Now for a look at what else is new on DVD: in "Frost/Nixon," Ron Howard recounts the standoff between Tricky Dick and British journalist David Frost on TV; in "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke plays a washed-up fighter looking for redemption inside and outside the ring; and in "Caprica," Battlestar Galactica fans get something new to obsess over.