The Book Thief

2013 • 130 minutes

About this movie

Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson star in this inspiring film based on the bestseller about Liesel, (Sophie Nélisse), a girl adopted by a German couple (Rush and Watson) who hide a Jew (Ben Schnetzer) from Hitler's army. Soon Liesel discovers that words and imagination provide an escape from the events unfolding around her family in this extraordinary film directed by Brian Percival (Downton Abbey).

Ratings and reviews

This movie is a wonderful balance showing both the fear that was felt in Germany during WWll and the joy that can still be found in the everyday life of families in any age. This story was incredibly written, superbly acted, and turned into a moving experience age appropriate for many younger watchers. Though the deaths of several characters cut close to the heart, we see through this movie how truly valuable life is. It isn't merely a tool for tyrants to sue as they wish, but something to be treasured. I would highly recommend this movie.

I really don't think this movie accomplished anything it set out to do. The WWII German setting seemed unnecessary and wholly irrelevant to the film's intended message. The characters were shallow and predictable and the wartime setting was handled carelessly. Furthermore the part at the end where the Americans are in town and suddenly things are all sunny and we start the "happily ever after" sequence was a pile of Hollywood garbage. I feel like this movie ultimately has very little to offer.

It has a brief but traumatizing scene of Nazi men realistically beating a young Jewish woman and her family in the street outside their store. I find that scene very disturbing, it crosses the line with me (men violently hurting women), we don't need to see that. Although it is accurate to what happened to very many people by the Nazis. Other than that, I found it to be a very powerful, captivating and at times beautiful movie.