The Book Thief

Director:

Brian Percival

Writers:

Markus Zusak (based on the novel by), Michael Petroni (screenplay)

Stars:

Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson

Storyline

In 1938, the young girl Liesel Meminger is traveling by train with her mother and her younger brother when he dies. Her mother buries the boy in a cemetery by the tracks and Liesel picks up a book, "The Gravediggers Handbook", which was left on the grave of her brother and brings it with her. Liesel is delivered to a foster family in a small town and later she learns that her mother left her because she is a communist. Her stepmother, Rosa Hubermann, is a rude but caring woman and her stepfather, Hans Hubermann, is a simple kind-hearted man. Liesel befriends her next door neighbor, the boy Rudy Steiner, and they go together to the school. When Hans discovers that Liesel cannot read, he teaches her using her book and Liesel becomes an obsessed reader. During a Nazi speech where the locals are forced to burn books in a bonfire, Liesel recovers one book for her and the Mayor's wife Ilsa Hermann witnesses her action. Meanwhile Hans hides the Jewish Max Vandenburg, who is the son of a ...

User Reviews

 

One of the best films of this or any Year

20 November 2013 | by ijcvegas (United States) – See all my reviews

If this film is not on most Top 10 Lists then what I think about critics will hold. As the saying goes " I laughed, I cried, i felt good. This film shows hope in the face of the worst that life serves up, and wants you to come back for more. The acting from top to bottom was fantastic. Geoffrey Rush gives a wonderful performance that should get him an Oscar nomination. This is by no means a feel good movie, and I wouldn't bring younger kids to see it, but it will make them think about. Best of all look for the answer to the many questions this film should leave in their minds. Questions of did this happen, and if it did, WHY? I like that as in other films about this time, it focused on the ordinary people of Germany not just the victims of the Holocaust. How their lives were touched by the insanity of the masses and how some never lost sight of what it was to care about others.