Synopsis
While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.
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Cast
- Geoffrey RushHans Hubermann
- Sophie NélisseLiesel Meminger
- Emily WatsonRosa Hubermann
- Nico LierschRudy Steiner
- Ben SchnetzerMax Vandenburg
- Heike MakatschLiesel's mother
- Barbara AuerIlsa Hermann
- Roger AllamNarrator / Death (voice)
- Rainer BockBürgermeister Hermann
- Gotthard LangeGrave Digger
Recommendations
- 75
Slant Magazine
Books themselves become the story's key symbol, representing the past and future, loss and possibility, of a place that's ground zero for some of history's darkest days. - 75
New York Post
Overall, it’s engaging and serves its young audience well — a rare Holocaust movie that doesn’t strain to become Oscar bait. - 75
Rolling Stone
The simplicity of Michael Petroni’s script seems a drawback at first. But skilled director Brian Percival (Downton Abbey) slowly, effectively tightens the vise as evil intrudes into the life of this child. - 70
Variety
The Book Thief has been brought to the screen with quiet effectiveness and scrupulous taste by director Brian Percival and writer Michael Petroni. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
It would make for a pretty ghastly pageant if not for smart, understated turns by Watson and Geoffrey Rush as the charmingly Teutonic couple who rescue both Liesel and a stranded Jew (Ben Schnezter) — not to mention the movie itself — with honorable matter-of-factness. - 67
The A.V. Club
"Life Is Beautiful" may or may not have set a benchmark for tackiness in Holocaust cinema, but The Book Thief offers a hypothetical way in which the former might have been worse: At least it wasn’t narrated by Death. - 60
New York Daily News
The movie’s strong sense of empathy, enhanced by several noteworthy performances, ought to engage most viewers. - 50
Film.com
An embarrassing gut-punch of unfiltered schmaltz, but its sympathy for the devil-style humanism is well-meaning.
