The Book Thief

3.5 Stars (out of four)

The Book Thief was one of those movies I wasn't sure about when I first saw the previews.  It looked a lot like many of the other World War 2 movies where brave people protected persecuted Jewish people.  There have been great films like The Hiding Place, The Pianist, the amazing Polish film In Darkness, they all have simultaneous uplifting and depressing commentaries on the nature and perseverance of the human spirit.  So I was wondering what The Book Thief would offer that was different than what we had seen before.  While all of these movies touch on it, The Book Thief hits me where I live.  It focuses on the everyday humanity of people, the little things that pull us together and make unbreakable bonds in family, friends and community, especially in horrible times like wars where there is so much loss.  The tragedy can seem arbitrary and cruel, and that is when our humanity is more important than ever to keep and nurture.

The movie starts with Liesel, in an amazing and scene-stealing performance by 13- year-old Sophie Nélisse, a German girl who, because of her mother's communist leanings, is taken away from her mother and given to a childless German family who want to adopt.  The couple are Hans and Rosa Hubermann (played by Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson).  Hans is a kindly man whom Liesel takes to immediately.  Rosa is a stern, almost comical stereotype of the German house Frau.  At first the movie starts near the very beginning of the war when Germany was just beginning as a nazi state.  As the movie progresses, we then see the gradual and sinister creep of nazi-party ideology and lifestyle over several years and how it took over the lives of ordinary Germans.  We find very early on that Liesel is illiterate, so Hans teaches her to read from a gravedigger manual she stole earlier.  Later, at a nazi book-burning rally, she takes a charred copy of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man and starts reading that.  She is seen by the town's burgermeister's wife who lost a son in World War I, who takes pity on Liesel.  She lets her read books from her large personal library.  Late one night, a young man near death bangs on the Hubermanns' door.  He is the son of a war buddy who once saved Hans' life.  They take him in and hide him for several years.  Liesel begins to steal/borrow books from the burgermeister's library to read to him as he recovers his health.  As time moves on, we see the soft side of everyone, including Rosa.  As Liesel reads more and talks with their houseguest, it opens inside her a gift for storytelling to describe all the awful things that surround her.  MINOR SPOILER ALERT!!!  The story is narrated by Death, and how the Hubermanns' touched him, hinting at the fate of some or many in the story.  Without giving much more away, Liesel's storytelling becomes a source of inspiration and strength for many.

What is interesting about this film is that its storytelling device is the same as To Kill A Mockingbird, that is, the telling of horrific truths about life through the eyes of a child, in this case, Liesel.  This immediately grabbed my attention and was adroitly used throughout the whole film.  As I said before, this is a story about humanity and people caught up in events bigger than they.  The movie makes the point that not all Germans were nazis, and when they weren't, it had some major consequences in their lives.  Interestingly, the only die-hard Nazi we see with any regularity is the town bully who becomes a willing participant with the Hitler Youth.  But the ongoing theme throughout the film is that not everything is as it seems at first glance.  It also points out that life is quite often not fair and we have to make do with the hand we are dealt.  That is where others come in.  It is by helping one another that lifts us up and ennobles us, especially since we could die at any moment, as Death's narration reminds us.  The movie admonishes us to look out for one another and not be so drawn into ourselves.  It is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.  Overall, a fantastic movie.