The Book Thief (Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Sophie Nelisse) — I can hear my son saying “oh no, not another World War II holocaust movie!). Really, Jeff, this one is well worth it. Based on the immensely popular book by Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief is a magnificent, touching, and not-terribly satisfying story of a girl and her adopted parents in Germany from 1939 through the end of the second “war to end all wars.”
Oscar nominations will abound. Academy Award winner (and four-time nominee) Geoffrey Rush, who is always fantastic, doesn’t disappoint as Hans, an out-of-work joy of a man who connects immediately with his new daughter, Liesel, who he refers to as “your majesty” at first encounter. Her teaches her how to read, and she falls in love with words and books. Emily Watson, a prolific, recognizable and wonderful British actress with two Oscar nominations, plays Hans’ wife, Rosa, a seemingly stern and stereotypical German frau. Sophie Nelisse plays Liesl, a feisty yet obedient girl given up by her mother and sent to the couple. She befriends Rudy (Nico Liersch, another fine young actor), your basic blond Arian boy with emerging hormones and a winning personality. He lives for soccer and playing with his friends.
The Book Thief is about relationships. All of these characters interact on the street, in their homes, during the nighttime bombing by the Allies, and with the Nazis. Their lives seem surprisingly normal given the tumultuous times. There are no ideologues among the townfolks. Of course, the Nazis are contemptuous, which is deserved of course but there seems to be no gray areas where they are concerned.
Just as we settle in as viewers, the world changes. A knock on the door brings Max, a young Jew who is the son of a departed friend Hans’. Hans had promised to take care of him in case the Nazis came to power. It was time to honor that commitment. Max (Ben Schnetzer), in his early 20s, is an intelligent young man who loves to read, even Mein Kampf.
He settles into the family’s basement where he dares not come out. Max and Leisel bond, both displaced children in search of a real life. When Max falls gravely ill, Liesel holds vigil, reading books to him that she steals from a local wealthy Nazi sympathizer and his wife. It is not by accident that Liesl finds the rich couple. Rosa does their laundry, earning money on which the family subsides. Liesel delivers the laundry and befriends the woman, who introduces the girl to the home’s extensive library. The woman needs the company; she had lost a child. But when her husband finds out about it, Liesel is banned, and Rosa loses her laundry client. Obsessed with books, Liesel sneaks back into the house over and over again and steals books to read on her own and to Max.
This rich story delivers emotionally and cimematically. The plot is rich with both characters and sub-plots (young love, the Nazi search for Jews, the family saga, the air raids, the children singing Nazi propaganda and wearing uniforms).
If there is a fault, it rests in the almost idyllic setting of this German town and its residents, who seem almost oblivious to the world around them. One of the remarkable ironies of the World War II Germany is that its population was either blatantly ignorant of what Hitler and his followers were doing or were so fearful that they became complicit in the crimes against humanity. But The Book Thief is not really about war; it is about a girl coming of age and being shaped by the people around her in a very turbulent time.
The movie is actually narrated and is told in a sort of flashback. This makes it seem almost like a fairy tale. But don’t expect it to be happy. Even fairy tales have some death. In The Book Thief, people suffer, people grow, and people die. The audience prospers from this rich and loving tale.