Film review: The Book Thief given a glossy makeover

THE BOOK THIEF
Starring: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson
Director: Brian Percival
Category: IIA (English and German)

An international bestseller translated into more than 40 languages, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief was marketed as an older children’s book in some countries and a novel for grownups in others. Brian Percival’s film adaptation, on the other hand, feels like it is specifically geared towards viewers who have not yet reached full adulthood – by pulling punches and alluding to, rather than depicting the more horrendous aspects of life under the Nazis.

Among the more innovative elements of Zusak’s tome was its story being told by Death. But while Death (voiced by Roger Allam) narrates its early and latter sections, this distinctly middlebrow film centres on a young girl who is full of life, despite growing up in a time and place when many people feared for theirs.

At an early age, Liesel Meminger (Sophie Nélisse) sees her younger brother die and is sent to live with foster parents. Twinkly eyed Hans Hubermann (Geoffrey Rush) and his grouchy wife Rosa (Emily Watson) initially appear like an odd couple but both soon show that they have hearts of gold, and an uncommon compassion that makes them willing to risk their lives for other people.

Illiterate when she moves in to stay with the Hubermanns, Liesel is taught to read by Hans, a first world war veteran who now works as a sign painter. Having acquired a love of books, she impulsively salvages a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man from the ashes at a Nazi book-burning.

Spotted doing so by a senior Nazi official’s wife, Liesel is saved from getting into trouble by the woman turning out to be a fellow bibliophile.