I was told by my bestie in the states that The Book Thief was an amazing book, and on the strength of her recommendation, I bought a second hand copy for myself. Not long after I heard it was being made into a movie, and after seeing the trailer, without having read the book yet, I did want to see the film. That was until my cinema buddy saw it and told me that the acting from the child stars was really quite bad. However, having seen some awful films recently, I still wasn't put off, and so my friend and I decided to see The Book Thief anyway.
The story is narrated by death, as he observes a communist woman in Nazi Germany who is fleeing with her two children, Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) and her brother Werner. Death takes the sickly Werner before Liesel's mother can hand over the two children to be re-homed with Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa Hubermann (Emily Watson), leaving the childless couple with only Liesel to care for. Whilst the war rages, Liesel befriends her next door neighbour Rudy (Nico Liersch) and learns how to read with the help of Hans and a book she stole from a book burning ceremony in the town square. One night she bears witness to the Hubermann's taking in a young Jewish boy by the name of Max (Ben Schnetzer), who they hide in their basement. Will Liesel be able to keep Max a secret, or will Rudy, and in turn, Rudy's Nazi father, find out what the Hubermann's are up to?
Straight off let me say that the child acting is nowhere near as bad as my friend made out. I actually thought that considering both children had not had a lot of acting experience, and given that Sophie Nelisse is of French Canadian descent, but had to speak in English with a German accent, they both did fantastically well. Their performances were believable and I was emotionally invested in the characters they created. Similarly I thought that the adult actors were superb too, again considering they had to speak in English with German accents and none of them are German.
I have not read the book and although I now know how the story ends I would still be keen to read it, to see if it goes into anymore detail about Death, as he didn't feature all that much, he merely bookends the film. I found his narration to be fascinating and I would have liked a little more of that if anything. I will certainly be interested to see if he appears more in the novel.
The Book Thief is certainly not a cheery film, but I think if you know that going in then you won't be disappointed. It's also engaging, thought provoking and moving. I can't tell you if it's a faithful adaptation, but I'd certainly say it was worth seeing. 7.5 out of 10.
Straight off let me say that the child acting is nowhere near as bad as my friend made out. I actually thought that considering both children had not had a lot of acting experience, and given that Sophie Nelisse is of French Canadian descent, but had to speak in English with a German accent, they both did fantastically well. Their performances were believable and I was emotionally invested in the characters they created. Similarly I thought that the adult actors were superb too, again considering they had to speak in English with German accents and none of them are German.
I have not read the book and although I now know how the story ends I would still be keen to read it, to see if it goes into anymore detail about Death, as he didn't feature all that much, he merely bookends the film. I found his narration to be fascinating and I would have liked a little more of that if anything. I will certainly be interested to see if he appears more in the novel.
The Book Thief is certainly not a cheery film, but I think if you know that going in then you won't be disappointed. It's also engaging, thought provoking and moving. I can't tell you if it's a faithful adaptation, but I'd certainly say it was worth seeing. 7.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 11th March 2014
UK Release Date - 26th February 2014
Cast Overview:
Hans Hubermann ~ Geoffrey Rush
Liesel Meminger ~ Sophie Nelisse
Rosa Hubermann ~ Emily Watson
Max Vandenburg ~ Ben Schnetzer
Rudy Steiner ~ Nico Liersch
Death ~ Roger Allam
Director ~ Brian Percival
Writer(s) ~ Markus Zusak (Novel) and Michael Petroni (Adaptation)
