Review of The Book Thief (2013) by Jc E — 10 Apr 2014

I don't really remember why I put this on my Netflix. Maybe I read a positive review for it somewhere. Actually, now that I write that, I think it may have been in "World" magazine. Regardless, I didn't know a whole lot about it, but I knew it had Geoffrey Rush (Green Lantern), so I was willing to give it a shot.

Like many WWII/Holocaust stories, it plays out fairly predictably, but it never really focuses on the war or the atrocities thereof, but rather on the buildup in Germany, and the campaign against the non-Aryan.

Subtle, but terrifying when you think that what Hitler and the Third Reich did to the children - like those played by Sophie Nelisse and others in this film - seems eerily similar to how children are basically being brainwashed these days in public schools.

Okay, I'm not going to soapbox, but I fixated on that a little. Regardless, Rush, Nelisse, Emily Watson (Anna Karenina), Nico Liersch, and Ben Schnetzer give great performances, but the timeline of the movie is a little too long to make them not age at all through the film.

It's a minor complaint, but still noticeable. It's a pretty good film, but won't shatter your world. Still, you could spend your time on a lot worse than this.