Review of The Book Thief (2013) by Khaled M — 01 May 2014

Stylish, glossy and with a big heart, The Book Thief takes on a painful part of the world history through the eyes of a child living in Nazi-Germany. While it does not delve deeper into the controversies in the German society during the Nazi years, this adaptation of Marcus Zusak's young adult bestselling novel tells the touching story of a strong-spirited and brave girl during living in Stuttgart during the World War II.

Young Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is left by her mother (a communist on the run in Nazi Germany) to live with a foster family in Stuttgart. Confronted with her strange new parents, unpleasant school friends, a new true friend and the moment when Nazism was at its climax, she finds out the world of books. Encouraged and helped by her foster father Hans (Geoffrey Rush), her true friend Rudy (Nico Liersch) and a secret guest hiding in her basement (Ben Schnetzer), Liesel not only learns to read and to discover the world of books, but also experience the drama of war, Jewish prosecutions and the fear of being different in Nazi Germany.

The rock solid performances and the smooth story-telling are doing an excellent job ensuring that the audience is completely involved in the story. In addition to this, The Book Thief is one of the very few movies that actually tell depicting events, stories or families on the German side during World War II. The only point of improvement Brian Percival's delivery would be the lack of dramatic and emotional depth throughout all the 130 minutes of the movie. His insufficient focus on the nightmares of war (even in Germany), the Jewish extermination and more interestingly on what was the reason that made the German society follow Hitler and his Nazi ideology, has deprived the Book Thief from the ingredient called: drama.

Even though, The Book Thief plays it pretty safe, smoothens the grievances of war and lacks an actual feeling of a war-time catastrophe, it remains an enjoyable movie to watch. Mildly adventurous and with its big heart it delivers a sweetness that would be pleasing for a TV viewing.