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The Book Thief
The life of a young teenager girl, Liesel, who has separated from her parents and adopted by Rose and Hans, has been changed completely, as she struggles living in such a dangerous atmosphere during the Second World War, but spending time with Max, a Jew, inspires her life and knowledge.
14 October 1969, Rostock, German Democratic Republic
1972
1960, Preetz, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
1994, Vienna, Austria
20 May 1958, Arnsberg, Westphalia, Germany
26 February 1968, Dresden, German Democratic Republic
September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, USA
March 08, 2014
Showing tragic events through a child's eyes can be a powerful storytelling strategy, but there's something altogether too cosy and bland about Downton Abbey director Brian Percival's handling of the material here.
November 21, 2013
A tale of WWII Germany as seen through the eyes of a young girl, "The Book Thief" is unobjectionable, sentimental, and not a little dull.
November 21, 2013
Pretty visuals give an unexpectedly painful twist to other parts of the story.
March 10, 2014
Regrettably this poignant and profound story, does not feel very poignant nor profound at all.
March 24, 2014
This extremely moving drama suggests the Holocaust story Ray Bradbury might have written: Events are seen through a child's eyes; books are shown to contain a healing, transformative power; and the supernatural is real, if symbolic.
May 05, 2014
Ultimately not much more complex than the moment in which two children yell "I hate Hitler" across a lake, it imparts the message that Nazis are bad, books are good, and Geoffrey Rush would make a great dad even in WWII Germany
November 25, 2013
Markus Zusak's enormously successful young-adult novel seems to have been adapted as a movie for middle-aged children.
March 22, 2014
Zusak's story is stirring, and it holds the film up during most of its predictable parts, but The Book Thief never rises too far above that. The narration from Death only serves to make it more like some sort of fantastical fairy tale.
November 22, 2013
"The Book Thief" may not be perfect, but it may steal your heart.
November 21, 2013
You just wonder if this film's audience might be happier at home, curled up with a book. "The Book Thief," perhaps.
December 10, 2013
The movie lacks the nerve to treat death as anything more menacing than the tooth fairy.
June 07, 2016
'The Book Thief' mixes British actors using German accents, a few German actors, and the occasional German word, creating a playfully successful illusion of German-ness.