THE BOOK THIEF

This was a good movie about life  in Germany during Adolf Hitler's reign and it focused on the German citizens and their life with the forced conscription, the philosophical indoctrinations and the bombings which meant long hours in a bomb shelter.


It was also the story of Liesel, a young girl who was foster parented by Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush. When she started living with them, she couldn't read but that changed under the gentle and encouraging guidance of her papa.

It was very well acted and had some great poignant moments but all in all it was an idealized and a tad too 'clean' and spruced up movie. Even the scenes of watching a jew being taken from his home and beaten seemed sanitized and the town though reeking of poverty still seemed like a cute garbage free touristy village. There was a fellow schoolmate of Liesel's who was very much into the hitler beliefs and he bullied both her and her friend but that also seemed not quite real; there wasn't a feeling of tense violence.

However, it was an interesting story and kept me entertained throughout. It was too long and the ending (which took you through the deaths of her foster parents and her life after the Americans rode into town) was too pat and melodramatic in its attempts to be kleenix worthy. We gave it a 7.