The Book Thief

Based on Markus Zusak's popular novel, The Book Thief (2013) is a major disappointment. Handsomely produced, Brian Percival's adaptation nonetheless feels naggingly superficial.

Germany 1938. Young Liesl (Sophie Nelisse) gets separated from her mother, a political refugee, who leaves Liesel with sweet Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and sour Rosa Huberman (Emily Watson). Liesel warms to her adoptive parents, but has trouble fitting in at school, picked on for her illiteracy and uncomprehending the surfeit of National Socialist propaganda. She befriends precocious Rudy (Nico Liersch) and learns to read, becoming obsessed with books. Trouble beckons when Max (Ben Schnetzer), a young Jew, seeks sanctuary at the Hubermans. World War II breaks out, the government grows more repressive, and the town comes under Allied bombardment.

The Book Thief tries to operate on two levels. Percival and writer Michael Petroni suggest a fantasia, from its child focus to fairytale plotting and silly humor. Portions of Thief are snidely narrated by Death (Roger Allam), a conceit which might work in the book but proves insufferable on film. While explicit violence remains off screen, Percival does depict wartime deprivations: townspeople conscripted into military service, food and supplies running out, air raids devastating the town. The film vacillates between wispy fantasy and weighty drama, never finding the right balance.

Contrasting childhood innocence with crushing totalitarianism is a well-worn conceit, even if children rarely provide the most useful perspective. World War II and the Holocaust provides plenty of examples, from The Diary of Anne Frank to Number the Stars, so this territory's already well-mined. Percival dutifully checks off the Third Reich's greatest hits: stormtroopers burning books, brief glimpses of Kristallnacht and Jews being rounded up. For all the rich period detail, Thief offers little perspective on Nazism.

Liesl and her adoptive parents earn our sympathy, with their warm scenes of family bonding and perseverance in the face of oppression. Everything else feels under-sketched. Liesel and Rudy's friendship never develops beyond stage one, and other child characters are ciphers. Liesl's fascination with reading amounts to a trivial tic. Is she a rebel for saving H.G. Wells from the Nazi bonfire? Thief wants to stress the ability of ideas, the power of words to overcome tyranny (or at least preserve individuality). Outside of the cloying epilogue, Percival treats this idea as superficially as anything else.

Sophie Nelisse gives a warm, endearing performance deserving a much weightier character. Geoffrey Rush is utterly charming, while Emily Watson (War Horse) excels in a more difficult role. None of the other actors, child or adult, makes much impression: Nico Lierisch, as Rudy, is too much a typical movie kid, while Ben Schnetzer's Max is a vaguely likeable cipher. Hildegard Schroedter plays a disappointing character, a book loving noblewoman who grows less interesting the more time we spend with her.

I really wanted to enjoy The Book Thief more. For all its handsome surface, it never achieves the depth or poignancy the subject matter deserves.