I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak last week. Well my oldest son just started kindergarten. We were busy all week preparing for school. So I decided to watch The Book Thief the night before my son started school. I am already an emotional person so I could have thought this through a little better. I was an emotional wreck.
There were a lot of similarities between the book and the movie. They kept the main plot line the same which is appreciated. Liesal Meminger loses her brother on the way to be placed with foster parents. At his burial she steals her first book, The GraveDigger’s Handbook. She then is placed with Hans and Rosa Hubermann. She meets Rudy Steiner who becomes her best friend. Then the Hubermann’s hide a Jewish man, named Max Vandenburg in their home. Unfortunately, the movie is only 2 hours long so the movie lacks a lot of moments that made the book so great.
First of all, we only hear Death. We never see him. Even then we only hear him speak a few times, mainly in the beginning and the end. I would have liked to see him have a stronger presence in the movie. Reading Death’s perspective in the book made it so unique. While reading the book, I felt Death’s presence throughout the whole book and I really wanted that same feeling while watching the movie.
Many scenes were cut from the book. This I understand because it is impossible to convert a 550 page book into a 2 hour movie and include everything. The only thing I was disappointed with was the relationship between Ilsa Hermann and Liesal. In the book, Liesal and Ilsa have a very complicated relationship. Ilsa is extremely depressed from the death of her son. She rarely leaves the house. She lets Liesal come and read books. However, that takes a turn when she fires Liesel’s foster-mother. She is furious because Ilsa has so much and her family is already struggling. So Liesal starts stealing books from Ilsa’s home. In the movie, Ilsa is depressed but it also seemed like she seemed happy whenever Liesal came by to read. At the end of the movie, Ilsa is overjoyed to see Liesal alive. Even though it is a heartwarming moment, I missed the moment when Liesal was fed up and stood up for her family.
I do feel like they played it safe in this movie. In most World War II movies, there is always this dread and fear. I know it must be difficult to show another point of view of the war but in the book, there was this feeling that something horrible could happen any minute. In the movie, I didn’t feel as anxious or fearful as I did reading the book.
I did enjoy the movie. I really enjoyed the choices for the actors in the movie. In fact, I think they all did a spectacular job. My favorite had to be Geoffrey Rush as Hans Hubermann. He really grasped that goodness and lightheartedness of Hans. Seeing Hans come to life in the movie was so wonderful!
I looked at Rotten Tomatoes to see the overall consensus of the movie. The critics gave it a 46% and the audience gave it a 73%. I would say I lean more towards the audience score. The acting was superb and they tried their best to honor the book. Overall the movie was entertaining and enjoyable but it didn’t touch the emotional depth and humanity of the novel.
Amanda's Book Review 