Disappointingly Executed Version of an Intriguing Text

Rating: 5/10 (15 April 2014)

Brian Percival's film of the Markus Zuzak novel contains two stand-out performances from Sophie Nelisse and Nico Liersch as the two children Liesel and Rudi. Caught in a complex world they understand little about, they try to pursue their day-to-day lives under the most trying circumstances. Liesel, transplanted to a German town and billeted with a new family, has to cope with a domineering foster-mother (Emily Watson) while trying to manage at a new school where she is taunted for her inability to read. Rudi, the perfect example of a blond-haired Aryan, ends up rebelling against his prescribed destiny, which is to be sent away for "special training" in the Nazi army. Apart from these performances, however, the film is a disappointment. The narrative unfolds at a sluggish pace, with treacly music by John Williams lending a sentimental edge to a profoundly unsentimental story. There is also the question of accents: one wonders why the main characters have to speak in the faux-German English accents punctuated with occasional German words "Ja" or "Nein" or "und," reminiscent of the British sitcom 'ALLO 'ALLO. This seems all the more incongruous when the script is peppered with American English neologisms. Why the characters couldn't have spoken in their normal voices seems a mystery to me. Thematically speaking, the film has a lot to say about the power of writing - even in a repressive regime such as Nazı Germany, Liesel and her Jewish friend Max Vandenburg (Ben Schnezter) understand how important it is to read and write. Liesel's adoptive father Hans Huberman (Geoffrey Rush) thinks much the same way - despite limited reading skills, he encourages Liesel to write all her new words on a board to compile her own dictionary. At the end of the film Liesel emerges as a powerful figure, one who can even cheat Death (Roger Allam) in the sense that her words - and her thoughts - live on through her books. THE BOOK THIEF has a promising idea, to be sure; it's just a pity it could not have been better executed.