Beautiful, but nothing will ever compare to the novel

Rating: 6/10 (2 June 2014)

This film was beautiful in every sense of the word. The cinematography, the soundtrack, the cast, the script...I was astonished at how quickly I grew attached to the actors portraying the characters. As the novel is one of my favourites, I was worried that the casting would disappoint me, but I was so wrong. Max, Liesel, Hans...everyone was perfect. I fell in love.
I had a few tears (nothing compared to when I finished the novel), but I found the ending very disappointing. My standards were already impossibly high, so maybe I'm just biased, but I found it didn't have much impact on me. I liked the way the pace was slow, and that the emotion was quietly-spoken, but Rudy's death didn't work for me. I didn't like him almost saying he loved her - we didn't even need him to say it; he portrayed his emotions so well throughout the film that we could clearly see it on his face. It was a matter of show, not tell.
Another thing was Death's voice. I found the voice was too much like a fairytale voice-over. You didn't need the dainty inflections in his voice. But, no matter.
Beautiful film. I really did enjoy it.