There have been some mixed feelings about the adaptation of The Book Thief, but don’t all films get a mixed review when it comes to their release!
The Book Thief Review
So the movie is based in World War II and follows the story of a young girl, Lisel (Sophie Nélisse) who is adopted by a family tragedy hits her own family, now her new family which includes a painter Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and his wife Rose (Emily Watson) take her in.
The film does have some lovely set design, but that doesn’t save it from the fact that The Book Thief is a little too long and could have been accomplished in possibly 20 minutes or so sooner!
But the running time doesn’t distract you from the fact that the film is nicely done, Geoffrey Rush is superb as Hans, Lisel’s adopted father and he could be easily up for an award, sadly not an Oscar this time though.
The Book Thief has only been nominated for one Oscar and that is for the wonderful score by John Williams, which is so suited to the movie and brings it alive.
With the film’s subject matter, which can be a tricky one at the best of times, it all works well, but not as well as you would expect it to, it is a movie that is quite emotional, personally for me though, I think the narration by “death” does spoil the film a little, but not completely.
Let’s just say that this film really isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s certainly not a film that young kids will sit through and it’s not one that the teens will probably go for either, it’s more like one of those films that you could watch just to wind away a few hours.
Director Brian Percival, who has a long line of TV Movies and TV series, such as Downton Abbey, under his belt, seems to have brought the “made for TV” style across in to The Book Thief and you do get the feeling that it would be right at home as a two-part mini series.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
