The Book Thief is one of those movies you had better take tissues with you. But, my oh my, is it good. We were very taken with the story and the actors. Of course, Geoffrey Rush is always great at whatever he does. But the girl, Liesel, (Sophie Nelisse) and the boy, Rudy, (Nico Liersch )were just wonderful as children who form a close friendship during the rise of Hitler. She has lost her brother to death and her mother to being very poor. She goes to live with Geoffery Rush and Emily Watson and meets her next door neighbor, Rudy. Along the way they shelter a young Jewish man, Max (Ben Schnetzer), from the troopers. The whole story is narrated by DEATH talking about how he becames interested in Liesel on the train when he came for her brother. It is a story of friendship, love, hardship, lost and how to endure when everything seems to have gone to hell in front of your eyes. It shows how some people even though they love you find it impossible to show it. It reminds us of how entire countries can become blinded by hate and thus destroy themselves. Out of 10 I give this one a 12. I will long remember it.
Cat Says:
I went into this movie knowing just the bare bones outline of the story, what I had seen in the trailers and a warning from a friend that it's an emotional rollercoaster but ends well. It is a sweet story about how people during the 40's were forced to place their children up for adoption and what happens to the children. The couple (Rush and Watson) think they are adopting two children but only one, Liesel, survives the journey to their home. Rosa (Watson) is disappointed that it wasn't the boy who survived so she has a very gruff exterior for Liesel to penetrate but Hans (Rush) is immediately kind and loving and giving. His helping Liesel to read is one of the most touching things I have seen in film.
The title refers to that reading quest. Rosa does the laundry for the Burgermeister in town and his wife, having lost her own son who was a voracious reader, decides to share their library with Liesel. At this time the Nazi's are beginning to round up the Jews for the camps so Hans and Rosa take in a young man for shelter. Max and Liesel become fast friends as he recovers from an illness. Their bond takes a brother/sister level and when Max becomes so ill, hiding in the freezing basement, and almost dies, Liesel makes it her mission to keep him going by any means and the best one she knows of is the stories that she reads outloud to him. When the Burgermeister calls a halt to Liesel using his library she is forced to climb into their window and borrowing books to read to Max, always being careful to return the books when she gets a new one.
Her friendship with the next door neighbor boy, Rudy, is never really fleshed out because they spend so much time on the parental relationship growing between Hans and Liesel and Rosa and Liesel as well as the growing brother-like relationship with Max that they run out of time to fully develop the friendship with Rudy which leaves you to feel like you are missing a whole bunch of the story. Based on a book, this is clearly part of it that they glossed over in the movie making process.
As the war takes a turn for the worse for the Nazi's it brings the bombing of Germany home to Liesel and her family. The ending of the film is also rather rushed. For an hour and a half you get the very slow movement of how Liesel came to live there, how those relationships grew in the shadow of the war and highlights from that such as the book burning parties they would stage for the towns. The last half hour is quickly showing how fast life can change on a dime and how Liesel's life ended up decades later.
The most interesting view of this movie is the narrator. It is told from the view of Death. He speaks of how he first came into Liesel's life when he came to collect the life of her brother on their journey to Hans and Rosa. Then he follows from there with how he returns into her life from time to time and ends with when he finally comes to collect her life in her old age. It really is a very wonderful approach to the movie and sets up that there will be very sad moments to come in the film.
But, as my friend let me know, it does end happily for Liesel even though she loses a lot along the way. It's a sweet slow moving film that tries hard to show as much as it can about the world Liesel grew up in at that period in her life in a short amount of time. I have a feeling that the book version of this would reveal a whole lot more that is missing here. For this reason it gets an 8 out of 10 from me. I just kept thinking that, while well written, well acted and cinematically beautiful, it isn't well balanced story-wise or time-wise. I would have rather had an other half hour added to the film time and actually have the weaker parts expanded and the ending not so rushed.
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