Review of The Book Thief (2013) by Mike C — 19 Apr 2014

Not a good adaptation, in my opinion. I grew to like the book, even with all its gimmicks, but I imagine it was a little hard to adapt because it moves around so much. The movie is also choppy but many things from the book are throwing in pointlessly and without explanation.

Furthermore, the movie is kind of confusing because the time lapses do not show up. Everyone looks the same, more or less. We're talking years of progression and it does not show at all.

I suppose it was impossible to watch as if I didn't know the story because it's the last fiction book I read. Therefore, I did not get a real feel for what I thought about the movie. But something as simple as story telling versus reading a book in the basement...why? Of all the things to change, they change that and make it far, far less plausible?

In general, the book is always better than the movie because any well-written book becomes your own movie in your head. But it's particularly true in this one. So many things did not come on screen as I had imagined them while reading. And very few of those changes, if any, were for the better.