Directed by:
Brian PercivalScreenplay:
Michael PetroniCinematography:
Florian BallhausComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Nico Liersch, Ben Schnetzer, Joachim Paul Assböck, Carina N. Wiese, Kirsten Block, Georg Tryphon (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
The film tells the story of Liesel Meminger (Sophie Nelisse), an eccentric young girl who is adopted by working-class German couple Hans and Rosa Hubermann (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson) as World War II looms. When Jewish refugee Max (Ben Schnetzer) arrives at the family's door they risk their own safety to shelter him from the Nazis. It marks the beginning of an unusual friendship between Max and Liesel, who shares her love of stories with Max and begins stealing books for him to read during his confinement. However, with the crackdown on Jews intensifying, the world of words may not be enough to shelter Max and Liesel from the tumultuous political reality that engulfs them. (20th Century Fox UK)
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Reviews (8)
Everything you wanted to re-watch for the thousandth time about the Nazis and their victims, in a transparent and
sentimental package with another ultra-fragile music score by John Williams. Innocent children, a good-natured Jew in
hiding, a papa with a big heart and a caring mom. Everybody loves each other very much while maintaining family
values, but unfortunately there’s the Gestapo knocking on their door... A nicely filmed mainstream tearjerker. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson are worthy of a higher form of cinematic art.
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Another monstrous contribution to the scary "Holocaust for the Whole Family" sub-genre, which includes, for example, the much-adored The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Compared to that, The Book Thief isn't as aggressively retarded and sci-fi-istic, but even here the view of that whole Nazi Germany problem is summed up as Hitler and a few of his cronies deciding to wage war and cleanse the Reich, and the rest of the Germans just trying to survive before it rolls over. That demonization of the individual is actually quite an appealing progression from classic wartime films where German equated to an obligatory barrel in the back of the head; on the other hand, here the element of danger is constantly represented by the sound of car engines, whose arrival on the street where 80% of the film takes place rarely means anything pleasant. However, the problem with The Book Thief is its narrow focus on school screenings, where they check off the elements of the fact that the Nazi thing probably wasn't entirely kosher in the individual scenes, but without a hint of healthy naturalism, and for the love over a monstrous 130 minutes. The moldy cherry on the stale cake (where they made up for the missing flour with detergent), is the character of the narrator – Death, voiced by Geoffrey Rush, i.e. one of the protagonists of the story, but these characters otherwise have nothing to do with each other, so I was all mixed up when it actually comes out that Liesel's adoptive father is actually Death and they're all long stiff or something. Anyway, whenever the movie pulls off a potentially interesting and atypical scene, unfortunately someone decided that the narrator had to inform the audience that the scene was interesting and atypical.
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I like these small – but at the same time very important to each and every one of us – WWII stories. Because they prove that these people had to live through hard times, but they were able to shake it off and go on living. I am incredibly fascinated by that and every single story of these people should be engraved in our souls to realize that our problems are not small, but they can be dealt with gracefully at the same time. The Book Thief is such a beautiful movie, although I have a number of criticisms about it. For example, throughout the entire movie, I kept wondering whether it was a good choice that they were speaking both English and German; the lead actors were speaking English and everybody around them was speaking German to add a proper atmosphere of Germany. To be honest, that really irritated me. On the other hand, I must say that the Görlitz scenery was absolutely flawless. I’ll immediately go there as soon as I get the chance. All that history is downright emanating off it. The story itself is a proper WWII affair. It’s got gorgeous camerawork, the filmmaking is very delicate and the acting is good and proper. Apart from the language barrier, I couldn’t find a single problem with this movie.
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A melodramatic film set in World War II, narrated by the Great Reaper himself. While the heroic Wehrmacht is conquering most of Europe and marching toward Moscow; under the roof of Hubermann’s house, the Judeo-Bolshevik menace rears its ugly head. The film reminded me of the Czech comedy Divided We Fall. It’s well cast, and the performances do it justice. It does have its weaknesses, though. In fact, the message it tries to get across is that not all Germans were bad during the war, but it does so in a very naive way. In the end, I was under the impression that the town had only two Nazis out of conviction: the mayor and Franz Deutscher. I was annoyed by the heartbreakingly poignant scenes, which didn’t need to be there at all. Nevertheless, I still liked the film, being the sensitive guy I am.
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The film has moments that are inventive and interesting, but it still heavily leans on the fact that it's a story from World War II seen through the eyes of a relatively young girl who must come to terms with the fact that growing up happens differently in such times. It's nice, it's human, and it's sometimes a bit shallow, but it still managed to touch my heart. And that's thanks to the great Geoffrey Rush.
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