Movie Review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Rating: PG-13. Some violence and intense depiction of thematic material
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 8 November 2013
Directed By: Brian Percival
My Rating: 5 stars. ALL THE STARS!

Based on the beloved bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the inspirational story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a new family in World War II Germany.

Oh my goodness. If you have yet to read the wonderfulness that is Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, do so now. It is one of my all-time favorite books and I can't recommend it enough. After you've read (and fallen in love with) the book, go see the movie, because it's fantastic. Granted, it has been a while since I last read the book, but from what I remember (which is quite a lot), the film was really quite faithful.

You guys, this movie is... it's just... man. This movie is so ridiculously good! The costuming is perfect, the cinematography is excellent, the casting is spot on and the whole entire thing is fantastic. I almost cried. Me. Almost crying. This is a big deal. I bawled like a baby whilst reading the book and I barely held it together for the movie.

The acting was superb, too. I don't think they could have picked a better cast, they were that good. I loved Geoffrey Rush as Hans. He was every bit the perfect person to play Herr Huberman. I also couldn't get enough of Sophie Nélisse as Liesel and Nico Liersch as Rudy. Those two are seriously the most adorable children in the universe and they made this movie what it is. They stole every scene with their honesty and talent and heart. Boy can they act! Even Ben Schnetzer as Max - though a lot of the time he was ill - was stellar. Seriously, the entire cast was amazing. I felt like the pacing was really good. If you've read the book, you know how long it is. They did really well moving forward in time and within the story, that you never felt lost or rushed or anything. You could literally see time passing - though they didn't make a big deal of it - with Leisl's hair growing, even! So genius!

I just don't know how to fully express how much I loved this. I want to go see it again, regardless of the fact that I just saw the screening on Monday. The bad part about this particular screening was the last 5 or 10 minutes were completely without sound and we didn't get to hear Death's narration at the end, but that's no fault of the movie itself. Oh yeah! That's another thing: they included Death narrating the story. I wasn't sure they were going to find a way to do it without it coming off cheesy, but they did. Death even made me laugh, just like in the book. I want to go see this again right now. Sadly, I have to wait until it comes out on the 8th, but you can bet I'll be seeing it again if I'm able. I know I'll definitely be buying it when it comes out on video.

Do yourself a favor, watch this movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be appalled and lifted up by the different examples of humanity. The Book Thief delivered everything I had hoped it would with translating this book and it did it beautifully. Such a perfect, beautifully haunting film for a perfect, beautifully haunting novel. I give this film all the stars!