Dreadfully Saccharine

Rating: 3/10 (27 November 2013)

The creators of The Book Thief have somehow managed to make a movie about World War II in which many people are killed but no one ever seems to be hurt or to suffer pain. The two leads do not age convincingly from 12 in 1938 to almost 17 in early 1943. The device of having Death do the voice-over narration trivializes what the characters are supposed to be going through; Death's slightly bored perspective is that everybody dies sooner or later, so that 15 or 85 doesn't matter in the long run. The most that can be said is that the production design is attractive and all the kids look adorable in their HJ and BDM uniforms.