USA TODAY International Edition
‘ The Book Thief’ steals a weighty story’s heft
It’s a lightweight look at Germany under Nazism
For a movie set in Germany during the Holocaust, The Book Thief is strikingly glossy, with images that look like a holiday greeting card.
While the performances can’t be faulted, the film lacks the emotional resonance of the best- selling novel by Marcus Zusak. With superficial sleekness, it flattens the intricate story to excessive simplicity.
A World War II drama as seen through the eyes of a child, Thief feels mannered when it should be lyrical and stodgy when it should be grave. The film’s narrator ( Roger Allam) is Death itself, a device that works better on the page than on the screen.
Anchoring the story is 9- year- old Liesel Meminger ( Sophie Nélisse), whose first scenes are riveting. The year is 1938, and her younger brother has just died. Her communist mother flees Nazi Germany and gives up Liesel to a foster family.
Liesel is a precocious girl who goes to live with the kindly, accordion-playing Hans Hubermann ( Geoffrey Rush) and his scowling wife, Rosa ( Emily Watson), in their box- like home in a picturesque village.
Having grabbed a book dropped by a gravedigger when her brother was buried, Liesel is entranced by the slim volume. But she can’t read the words within. With the help of Hans, Liesel learns not only to read, but to love words. To show this, the pair scrawl vocabulary all over the basement walls in chalk. This is juxtaposed with Hans’ daily work as a house painter, in which he must paint over words like “Goldstein” on a storefront.
The film struggles with fusing the redemptive power of words and the magic of books with the brutal realities of Nazism. Instead of offering honest storytelling, Thief feels Hollywood- ized for our protection. When the town is bombed, dead bodies look as untouched and peace- ful as if they’re napping.
Liesel forges a friendship with a golden- haired boy named Rudy ( Nico Liersch), and their playtime looks idyllic as they cavort over cobblestone streets. Even when they protest the social order, it seems tame. Rudy is chosen for elite military service, prompting him and Liesel to hide and chant: “I hate Hitler!”
A friendship that develops between Liesel and Max ( Ben Schnetzer), a young Jewish man whom the Hubermanns hide at great personal risk, is one of the film’s more touching aspects. And Rush infuses his fatherly character with goodness and weary humanity.
Director Brian Percival ( who has helmed several Downton Abbey episodes) has fashioned a film that looks pretty but seems short on substance, with one- dimensional storybook characters.