More than excellent

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2016)

This movie has to be one of the best I have seen in a long, long time.
SPOILER BEGINS
This movies is not about the hardships of WW2 experienced by the British, French, Polish or other occupied country by the tyrannical Hitler, it is about the hardships encountered by ordinary German families, one family in particular.
The story centres around a young girl, Liesel played admirably by a young Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse. She is sent, along with her brother to live with another family in another part of Germany but her brother dies on the way.
When she arrived she formed an instant attachment with her new father Hans Hubermann, played by the wonderful Australian actor Geoffrey Rush.
Her feelings for her new mother Rosa Hubermann played by Emily Watson were at best muted to begin with.
The story starts in Germany in 1938 when Hitler is in power and progresses through the beginning of WW2 and the final defeat of Hitler in 1945.
Liesel becomes friends with a boy a little older than her, Rudy Steiner played by Nico Liersch.
When she arrived with her new family she could not read or write but Hans began the task of teaching her.
She became enthralled in books and began 'borrowing' books from the Burgermeisters home. These books appeared to be borrowed on a non return basis.
Shortly after the war began a knock came to the door and a young Jew Max Vandenburg played by Ben Schnetzer was outside asking to be hidden. Hans was under an obligation to hide him because Max's father had saved Hans's life during WW1.
This is basically the story in a nutshell but it is an absolutely wonderful movie which should not be missed, especially the ending.
SPOILER ENDS
This is an extremely sad and heart rending movie which requires a good supply of tissues.
Sophie Nélisse, although a young actress played her part extremely maturely and lit up the screen with her impeccable performance. She was nominated for several awards and duly won quite a few.
Geoffrey Rush was his normal highly professional self and played his part to perfection in the same way as Emily Watson played hers.
I will always contend that Rush should have won an Oscar for his portrayal as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech.
Brian Percival directed The Book Thief superbly.