Full disclosure if I’m going to air all embracing tidbits about myself; I was not aware that The Book Thief, directed by Brian Percival of Downton Abbey fame (which for some unfathomable reason I DID know), was based on a book. Thanks to the timing of its release just before Thanksgiving (enough to for it to make that slide riiight into Holiday/Oscar season), and the fact that initial trailers gave it the impression of it being a thoroughly depressing, albit predictable story that followed a little orphaned girl and her new foster family in Nazi Germany, I wrongly assumed for better or worse, that it was just a precursor to the sea of oncoming designated “Oscar-bait” films. The fact that we now equate powerful stories about very real episodes of human suffering with Hollywood glitz and Academy Awards is a problem to be saved for another day.
Nevertheless, The Book Thief is based on the best selling novel by Australian writer Markus Zusak; a novel that has built up a quite by large fanbase, ranging from children to adults alike. And that magic that succeeded once before in drawing so many to its captivating story, is captured and handled masterful by the film adaptation; which despite it’s dark setting of Nazi Germany, surprises by being one of the most heartfelt films of the year.
The story centers on a young girl named Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) who’s taken in by a poor elderly couple, Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) in Germany after her mother puts her up for adoption to keep her safe. With the beginnings of the Nazi party serving as a juxtaposed backdrop, the story centers on Liesel as she tries to to adjust to her new home. Initially she’s given precious little reason to want to stay; rebuffed by an icy reception from her new Foster mother who has no problem implying that she only agreed to take her in for the money she would bring, and plagued with the homesickness for her mother whom she’s not even certain is still alive. Her illiteracy turns out to be the key to being to opening her heart to her new family and home, when the kindly Hans begins trying to teach her to read, instilling in her, his love for books. But this new found love and this slowly forming family are thrust into the harshest of tests, when they choose to harbor a young Jewish man named Max in their home, and the background machinations of the suffocating Nazi regime and ideology are suddenly thrust into their lives.
The Book Thief works well precisely because it’s not about the spectacle or the violence that most films that focus on the Holocaust tend to dwell on. Rather, it deals in in the quieter, simpler stories of characters, the growing love of a new family, and the passion for books that slowly morphs into a symbolism for hope.
Percival brings his knack for storytelling by choosing well written character interactions and developing relationships as the driving force behind the story, over noisy exploitation and spectacle. Nelisse, Watson, and Rush all have excellent chemistry with one another, working as a very believable family through good times and bad. But by far the biggest pleasant surprise here is 13 year-old Nelisse’s performance. As a highly billed performer with the movie resting on her shoulders, the young actress succeeds well under pressure and successfully carries the movie.
There are still the thematic elements of Nazi Germany that aren’t stripped away by Hollywood magic that may be troubling to younger viewers. The Book Thief pulls out a gem of a family story that focuses on the best of humanity, in the face of its worst. And it is a story worth seeing.
