THE BOOK THIEF (2013)

Genre: Drama
Director: Brian Percival
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Sophie Nelisse, Ben Schnetzer, Nico Liersch
RunTime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 27 February 2014

Synopsis: Based on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, an extraordinary and courageous young girl sent to live with a foster family in World War II Germany. She learns to read with encouragement from her new family and Max, a Jewish refugee who they are hiding under the stairs. For Liesel and Max, the power of words and imagination become the only escape from the tumultuous events happening around them. The Book Thief is a life-affirming story of survival and of the resilience of the human spirit.

Movie Review: 

‘The Book Thief’ is adapted from Markus Zusak’s award-winning novel of the same title. Directed by Brian Percival, the movie stars French-Canadian actress, Sophie Nélisse as the Book Thief, or Liesel Meminger, while veteran actors Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson play her adopted parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann.

Similar to the novel, the movie opens with a narration by Death, voiced by English television and stage actor, Roger Allam. In the book, Death’s omnipresent narration allows the story to progress through temporal and spatial distances. In the movie, however, Death’s narration is less often. Despite so, Death’s most haunting lines were preserved from the book while the narration also adds poignancy to the scenes, adding prominence to the character.

Despite coming from the same studio that made the Life of Pi, the cinematography of the Book Thief could not be more different. The Book Thief did not contain the unreal graphics and colours suited for the Life of Pi. Befitting the subject matter of war and the Holocaust, the colours in the film were pale and somber. This colour scheme was set right at the start, where the train bringing Liesel to Himmel Street trudged through the desolate countryside, up to the aftermath of the bombing of Himmel Street and the end of war. The colour scheme helped convey the sense of hopelessness and wariness that comes with war, as it sucks the life out of the people living through it. Respite from the war came from the children’s innocence, and for Liesel, being in the mayor’s wife’s library. The warmth and colours in these scenes provides a stark contrast to the pale colour tones of Himmel Street in winter. This is especially so in the scene where Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch) and Liesel plot to escape, as they make their way through the vivid autumnal colours searching for a way out of the war. In the end, however, they were forced to return to bleak reality.

The film’s two main characters, Liesel Meminger and Rudy Steiner, were well played by Sophie Nélisse and Nico Liersch. Much of the film rested on Nélisse’s shoulders, as it revolved around Liesel’s experiences during Hitler’s reign. Liesel’s circumstances had forced her to grow up far too quickly, as she recognizes the wrongness of burning books and prosecuting others based on their ideology and religion. Nélisse’s Liesel was, at the same time, precocious and weary of the world, drawing sympathy from the audience. Being almost constantly together, Rudy acts as a foil to Liesel’s maturity with his childish innocence and perspective of the world. This was a breath of fresh air in the dreary daily existence of most people in the war.

Without the constant narration by Death and the luxury to add in explanations and backstories like the book, particular scenes in the movie do seem rather abrupt and needed more explanation, while other scenes were slightly draggy. In the aftermath of the Himmel Street bombing, Rudy’s words to Liesel seemed anticlimactic and awkward, with the scene seeming to serve no purpose except to give the love story of Rudy and Liesel a needless conclusion. That aside, the movie was a good, if understated, adaptation of Zusak’s novel.

The Book Thief shows that while it is important to highlight the cruelties of war and the Holocaust, it is even more crucial to know that people do not lose their humanity during war. Innocence, kindness and generosity exist in spite of the trying times and while everyone dies in the end, it is how you live that matters.

Movie Rating:

('The Book Thief' is not your typical film about the WWII and the Holocaust, told through the eyes of a child and emphasizing the loss of innocence and cruelty of war to the common man)

Review by Goh Yan Hui