The Book Thief – Review

24th February 2014

We all know that in the Europe of the Second World War, the Nazis are the bad guys. A whole history of cinema has enforced this idea and we, the modern generation, are comfortable with it and accept it. But what about the Germans? The Nazis are a political party, with members and a government, who happened to lead the country Germany. This is an question that seems best left unasked in the movie industry, until now.

The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, an orphaned girl from East Germany as she is adopted by foster parents during the outbreak of the war. We see the war from her perspective and her experience as she attends school, makes friends, is taught to read by her foster father and eventually falls in love with books and stories. As the war progresses, things become more desperate as her family shelter a young Jewish man, Leisel starts stealing books that are forbidden by the Nazis and the Allies creep ever closer to Germany.

Liesel and Max hiding in the cellar, with a book.

The film is an adaptation of a well loved novel, and in all of these cases there is a challenge with how you do that. The book has Death (yeah, the guy with the scythe) narrating it, and the film opens and closes with that. If you can suffer it for the few moments it jars you from the story, you can get on to enjoying this movie. It’s a compelling tale of a girl growing up (with fantastic performances from all the cast that pull all of your heart strings) in extreme circumstances, but also does great work to show us something we think we know so well from a slightly different angle, and makes us reevaluate our prejudices. There are things we’ve seen before, of course, for such a well visited subject matter, but what takes us along is Leisel. Sophie Nélisse is captivating as this young girl, and she makes you believe so much that you’ll forgive some of its shortcomings and focus on its achievements.

The Book Thief is in cinemas 26th February 2014.

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