Review of The Thief Lord (2006) by Ashley D — 15 Feb 2007

The Thief Lord (2006) - "I knew it! That wretched boy." - Mrs. Maximilian Hartlieb.

"The Thief Lord" is Richard Claus' adaptation of German author Cornelia Funke's magical children's book of the same name. Claus also directed. A direct-to-video release in the United States following its theatrical run in Europe, the screenplay seemed reasonable enough, but I have it on good authority that it was maddening to veterans of the book. CinemaClubSC roasted the film for weak set design, poor writing, and (consequentially) unintended comedy - mainly from updating the setting of the book to more modern times.

Novels like this are tough to adapt because so much of the experience is created within your own imagination. As soon as you see it on film, it's a disappointment. It's like Room 101 in the book "Animal Farm." The concept of a room that holds your greatest fear can fill your mind to the walls as you read the words on a page, but once you see it in the movie, it's no longer YOUR greatest fear, it's THEIR greatest fear.

Knowing all that, I promised myself I would skip the movie and enjoy the book, but one of the actors in "The Illusionist" intrigued me so I reneged on the promise and pushed "The Thief Lord" to the top of my list. Feeling guilty and girding myself for the criticism I've read, I actually ended up enjoying the film. I think it's the thing where I lower my expectations so far that I end liking the movie. The young actors were fun and the adults did a passable job. I also thought that the photography was pretty good. And my reading of the book reviews seemed to match fairly well with my experience while watching the movie, but as CinemaClubSC reminds us, the knowledgeable will see big differences.