Well Told Story and a Great History Lesson

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2014)

It's 1938, Nazi Germany. Liesel's (Sophie Nelisse) mother sends her to live with a foster couple as she can no longer care for her. Liesel steals her first book at the grave site when her brother dies on the trip. The book: The Gravedigger's Handbook. (Does something like that actually exist?) Liesel likes Hans (Geoffrey Rush) who she calls Pappa. She is wary of Rosa (Emily Watson) who she calls Mamma, but considers her like a thunderstorm as she is always rumbling. In time this new family takes in Max, a Jew who is in hiding from the Germans, and they know the consequences if they get caught hiding him.
This is quite a history lesson especially for the youth of today as they have no clue about WWII and the German attempts at world domination. We see the family living in fear all the time. We can conclude that most families during this time had no real love for the German government, but they complied as the government expected them to. They all lived in fear.
The story is compelling as we follow Liesel and her need for reading. When she brings the laundry to the Bergermeisters's house, she is shown the huge library and the Bergermeister's wife lets her select books to read. I bet you are thinking how Liesel can figure out how to steal all these books when she is overcome with the quantity there. Just a thought as it ran across my mind. Later, when the Burgermeister himself catches Liesel in the library with his wife, he forbids Liesel to come again with the laundry and he's not too happy with his wife. Later, Liesel sneaks into the Burgermeister's library and steals (she claims she is only borrowing) various books and reads them to Max. Her school-friend, Rudy, calls her the Book Thief.
Sophie Nelisse was the perfect choice to play Liesel. She has that ability that shows constant wariness, alertness and the necessary fear of something bad about to happen. You can see all this in her eyes. She gave quite a performance. Kudos.
Geoffrey Rush should have received a nomination for his role as Hans, a house painter, who refused to join the Nazi Party. The chemistry with Liesel was pure gold.
The story is narrated, in parts, by DEATH (Roger Allam) and he says everyone will die and there is no use fighting it. His comments at the end of the movie fill in many gaps.
English is spoken with German accents. Sub-titles are shown when German songs are sung by the Hitler Youth.
This was not a true story but the impact of the war on German families and their children is quite dramatic and probably worse then what we see in this movie. Yes, this is a movie the youth should watch and it should be mandatory in schools. (9/10)
Violence; Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.