A moving tale of the hardships of war through the eyes of a remarkable girl.

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2014)

4 March 2014 Film of Choice at The Plaza Tonight - The Book Thief. Growing up being told about the horrors of life in wartime Britain, one tends to forget that not all Germans were Nazis and that normal German families, good German families were just trying to get through the war the same as anyone else, and some exceptional German families went just that one step further to help the persecuted. The Book Thief is a tale of one such family and how the arrival of a young girl called Liesel changed their lives. Based on the best selling book of the same name, this film charts the day to day task of living and the hard job or surviving. Unable to read when she arrives with her foster family, Liesel soon discovers the magic of books and when Max, a Jewish refugee, arrives on their doorstep she puts all her efforts into bringing the outside world into his dark hiding place in the cellar. An intensely moving film which illustrates extremely well the hardships faced by the Germans under the rule of Hitler. Sensitively filmed, and extremely well cast with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson as the adoptive parents, the star of the film has to be the beautiful Sophie Nélisse, who stole every scene she was in. I hadn't read the book prior to seeing this film but I think I will now.