The Book Thief (the Movie, Not the Book)

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I did not read the book. I know; shame on me, right?


I am somewhat glad of this though. Why? Because the people who read the book will be comparing the book to the movie the entire time. I was able to view, and thus enjoy, the movie as though it was an entirely new experience, which it was.

I don't know if there's a huge point to this movie. It's just a story about life in Germany during the war, from the POV of a young girl. I guess that is the point. When we think of WWII or read about it or watch movies about it, it's very rare that we see what the war was like for those in Germany. We often forget about them. They were the enemy, after all, but it's important to remember and I feel this movie reminds of us of it, that there are innocents on both sides.

The people in Germany, many of them tried to help others, be it hiding Jews from persecution or speaking up in defense of their fellow men being wronged. The risks for even this were great. As we see in the movie...if you speak "out of turn", you'll be conscripted! Or shoved around...or watched...

The girl is a spunky. I liked her. She falls in love with words and after the book-burning, she "borrows" books from a wealthy lady. She's compassionate and though it takes her a while to warm to some people, when she loves, she loves with all her heart. To me this was another lesson in the story: Don't close yourself off from others. Let yourself loved and be loved in return no matter what bad things happen to you.

The acting, costumes, setting--superb. The narrative is death. That was creepy, surprising, and totally worked.

There's death. This is a sad one. Nobody comes out of war unscathed. You'll cry. I did.

My only quibble: I'd have liked to know what happened to Max while he was out of the picture.

I rented this on Amazon Prime.