The Book Thief (2013)
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Release Date: Nov 8, 2013 Limited
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User Ratings: 3,154
Movie Info
Based on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of an extraordinary, spirited young girl sent to live with a foster family in WWII Germany. Intrigued by the only book she brought with her, she begins collecting books as she finds them. With the help of her new parents and a secret guest under the stairs, she learns to read and creates a magical world that inspires them all.
Nov 8, 2013 Limited
20th Century Fox
- Official Site
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A warmly emotional if slightly old fashioned period drama with an appealing young heroine and a nicely utilised World War II backdrop.
October 30, 2013
Full Review
Screen International
Audience Reviews for The Book Thief
October 30, 2013
Michael Smith
Beautifully captured and cleverly narrated, The Book Thief will warm even the coldest of hearts. Although it deals with a serious subject matter, Geoffrey Rush delivers timely humor on multiple occasions which allows the movie to strike a perfect tone. Major credit needs to be given to Sophie Nelisse, who carries the movie effortlessly, bravo.
October 30, 2013
The stories from Europe in the 1930s and 1940s are innumerable. The rise and the fall of the Third Reich created tales for everything from the greatest warriors of modern times (Patton) to the joyous moments from loved ones (Life is Beautiful) to spy games and espionage (Army of Shadows). Every survivor had a story to tell whether or not they knew it. The fatal flaw with The Book Thief--a coming-of-age tale set in Nazi Germany--is it couldn't settle for just one story.
Director Brian Percival's first feature since helming several episode of "Downton Abbey", The Book Thief Sophie Nélisse as Liesel, young girl sent to live with foster parents after her mother, a Communist, is shipped of to a concentration camp. Moving in with the stern, bun-wearing Rosa (Emily Watson) and gentle soul Hans (Geoffrey Rush), it is soon discovered that Liesel is illiterate. Not being a strong reader himself, Hans joins Liesel in discovering the imaginative world of books. While improving her reading skills, Liesel begins to develop a relationship with a neighborhood boy, Rudy (Nico Liersch), who is determined to kiss her. Shortly after the Kristallnacht Hans, Rosa, and Liesel take in Max (Ben Schnetzer)--a Jew on the run whose family is owed a life debt from Hans.
Usually, this would be a sufficient story for feature--a main plot with a supporting character whose subplot exists to serve the main. But The Book Thief reaches out to every possible horrible event which could have happened to someone under the Nazi Occupation. The audience sees the family run to the town air-raid shelter; they see the tears when someone is conscripted; and they see the sorrow of the Jews marching to certain doom. Stories told in this manner are typically better suited for books--a medium on which this film is based. What is all-to-often forgotten is that just because a story is strong for literature, does not mean it would work well in a motion picture. Similarly, some films--classic though they may be--would not transfer well to a novel. It's not necessarily a problem with the source material, it's simply a formatting issue. (Could you imagine Casablanca as a novel?)
This isn't to say The Book Thief is without it's merits. Sophie Nélisse gained notoriety with her difficult yet spot-on performance as Alice in Monsieur Lazhar--a film which would have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film had it not been competing against A Separation--and she delivers a stellar performance once more. The moments of levity are usually genuine and seem to come from the actors themselves rather than the script. What the actors can't escape from, however, is the limited restraint to where the story takes us. All of these things (most of which can not be mentioned without risking some spoiler territory) which happened to this girl may have happened to a someone during the war. But trying to put it in a 120 minute movie makes it seem forced, disingenuous, and practically begging for awards. It's not a "bad" film per sé, but one with so much tacked-on emotion cannot be considered "good."
Director Brian Percival's first feature since helming several episode of "Downton Abbey", The Book Thief Sophie Nélisse as Liesel, young girl sent to live with foster parents after her mother, a Communist, is shipped of to a concentration camp. Moving in with the stern, bun-wearing Rosa (Emily Watson) and gentle soul Hans (Geoffrey Rush), it is soon discovered that Liesel is illiterate. Not being a strong reader himself, Hans joins Liesel in discovering the imaginative world of books. While improving her reading skills, Liesel begins to develop a relationship with a neighborhood boy, Rudy (Nico Liersch), who is determined to kiss her. Shortly after the Kristallnacht Hans, Rosa, and Liesel take in Max (Ben Schnetzer)--a Jew on the run whose family is owed a life debt from Hans.
Usually, this would be a sufficient story for feature--a main plot with a supporting character whose subplot exists to serve the main. But The Book Thief reaches out to every possible horrible event which could have happened to someone under the Nazi Occupation. The audience sees the family run to the town air-raid shelter; they see the tears when someone is conscripted; and they see the sorrow of the Jews marching to certain doom. Stories told in this manner are typically better suited for books--a medium on which this film is based. What is all-to-often forgotten is that just because a story is strong for literature, does not mean it would work well in a motion picture. Similarly, some films--classic though they may be--would not transfer well to a novel. It's not necessarily a problem with the source material, it's simply a formatting issue. (Could you imagine Casablanca as a novel?)
This isn't to say The Book Thief is without it's merits. Sophie Nélisse gained notoriety with her difficult yet spot-on performance as Alice in Monsieur Lazhar--a film which would have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film had it not been competing against A Separation--and she delivers a stellar performance once more. The moments of levity are usually genuine and seem to come from the actors themselves rather than the script. What the actors can't escape from, however, is the limited restraint to where the story takes us. All of these things (most of which can not be mentioned without risking some spoiler territory) which happened to this girl may have happened to a someone during the war. But trying to put it in a 120 minute movie makes it seem forced, disingenuous, and practically begging for awards. It's not a "bad" film per sé, but one with so much tacked-on emotion cannot be considered "good."
October 30, 2013
Saw it -- posting soon on http://smrcultureplus.blogspot.com on the Monthly Film Chronicle -- October 2013
October 29, 2013
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| Can the producers of Twilight and the writer of 'The Rite' pull this off? | 3 months ago | 0 |
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I wish they could make something like this set during the Korean or Vietnam wars. Perhaps they do, in Asia.