Stars Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Nico Liersch, Ben Schnetzer and Roger Allam Directed by Brian Percival Popular books frequently get snapped up and turned into movies, and often, the movies are really never as good as the books. Especially so when the books are far more of a literary nature than say a typical novel written with a movie in mind. Markus Zusak’s novel of The Book Thief has an interesting conceit, one that in translation to a screen adaptation, takes away the very reason that makes the book a wonderful read. The tale itself is nothing much to shout about, and in making the movie, director Brian Percival seemingly struggles to put something significant on screen. The narrative and direction becomes obviously heavy handed, and some stylistic choices simply jar. Case in point, very early on when young Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) steals her first book dropped by a grave digger. that book drops to the ground with a massive thud that it’s utterly amazing that the grave digger himself did not hear it. Of course there is a certain metaphorical ‘weight’ to that first book that gets the story going, but still… Ultimately, it is a coming of age tale of a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, and there really is nothing more. The usual tropes are there and Roger Allam’s narrative, while soothing and enticing, does nothing to add to the unique nature of the tale’s narrator that you would foliow in the book. Sophie Nélisse does well enough as the young Liesel, but as one would expect, Geoffrey Rush carries the movie whenever he’s on screen, aided wonderfully by Emily Watson. They do provide some gravitas in terms of star and acting power, but it is in service to a rather lacklustre adaptation with nothing to push the movie to the heights it tries to reach for. Rating **1/2
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