The life of a young teenager girl, Liesel, who has separated from her parents and adopted by Rose and Hans, has been changed completely, as she struggles living in such a dangerous atmosphere during the Second World War, but spending time with Max, a Jew, inspires her life and knowledge.
'The Book Thief' mixes British actors using German accents, a few German actors, and the occasional German word, creating a playfully successful illusion of German-ness.
Zusak's story is stirring, and it holds the film up during most of its predictable parts, but The Book Thief never rises too far above that. The narration from Death only serves to make it more like some sort of fantastical fairy tale.
This extremely moving drama suggests the Holocaust story Ray Bradbury might have written: Events are seen through a child's eyes; books are shown to contain a healing, transformative power; and the supernatural is real, if symbolic.
You just wonder if this film's audience might be happier at home, curled up with a book. "The Book Thief," perhaps.
Movie Talk
March 08, 2014
Showing tragic events through a child's eyes can be a powerful storytelling strategy, but there's something altogether too cosy and bland about Downton Abbey director Brian Percival's handling of the material here.
Ultimately not much more complex than the moment in which two children yell "I hate Hitler" across a lake, it imparts the message that Nazis are bad, books are good, and Geoffrey Rush would make a great dad even in WWII Germany