Review of The Book Thief (2013) by Kyle M — 01 Oct 2015

Any films taking place during the Nazi era are hard to watch because of the Holocaust. I've seen "Life is Beautiful," "The Pianist" and "Jakob the Liar," and, trust me, they weren't well received or even liked. They were mostly praised on the portrayals of the horrible era by the acting and cinematography and direction. The only film that was good during the era was the third Indiana Jones adventure when the father-son duo bumped into Hitler at the burning books ceremony while avoiding and beating the Nazis.

The perspective seen in those films were the innocents seeing the Nazis as heartless monsters in that era. I don't know if there's any film from the Nazis' point of view. But when I saw "The Book Thief," it wasn't what I'd expected to see. The perspectives seen in this war drama was through the nicer families and heartening people that were on Hitler's (the wrong side I might say without any act of offending). This perspective is new to the era's chronicles. However, despite having a fresh perspective in the film, the monstrous characteristics were still in the presence of their own peace, including poignancy getting into that peace.

Narrated by Death itself sadistically (voiced by Roger Allam from "Games of Throne"), his act of claiming a life was caught by a girl, who'd witnessed the death of her little brother. After the funeral, the girl, Liesel (Sophie NÃ (C)lisse), was delivered to her foster parents, Hans and humble Rosa Hubermann (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson), when her mother was fleeing Germany as a Communist. She spends her time reading books, learning new vocabulary and stories to behold. She secretly gets her titular title "The Book Thief" when she refused but forced to burn a book and secretly took one that wasn't burnt. Meanwhile in her social life, she'd befriended the boy who lives next door, goes to the same school and likes to run Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch).

Her adventure of having passion of books and words to learn goes further on when a runaway Jew took shelter in their house. His name is Max Vandenburg (Ben Schnetzer), a family friend, specifically a son of a soldier that'd fought alongside Hans in WW1. While recovering from his long trip and bonding with Liesel, WW2 begun, and his presence need to be kept secret or an unfortunate separation will fall between them. This put the households under a clichà (C)d complications in these kind of films, except this time the Jews doesn't own the household.

As Death, was narrating the story and admitting his actions in a well-worded way, he was piqued by Liesel's heart and mind, and what she represent as she grows up through her life that got Death having a thought he'd never had. (Although this is the fictional account of Death narrating the beginning and end).

"The Book Thief" provides a fresh perspective on the era on an unexpected side, while having the same qualities spiritually that would get this film to be a successful, award-winning dramatic storytelling. It was handled with gentleness and heart, despite having the same roughness that'd push the level down. The characters of the good and the heart - Liesel, the Hubermanns, Max, and Rick and his family - were strongly performed by a nice cast, mainly Geoffrey Rush.

If you want to see how life is really beautiful, where the true spirit of the name of a pianist than false, and not see Robin Williams torture himself in the horrible time, see "The Book Thief." (B+).