“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
― Isaac Newton
I've been away visiting the folks over at The Collectionary because they have some really nice toys and allow me to play with them in their sandbox. Don't get me wrong, we have some great stuff here to keep us busy but it's nice to get out for a while and play with other people's toys.
I've been hanging out on their blog and ended up jotting down my thoughts on action figures for them. Pop by and play with us over there for a while and read my cool post.
One of The Book Thief’s promotional campaigns was a series
of images and teasers posted on their Facebook page related to words and what
they mean. One of the themes throughout the story is words and what they mean
to people; how beautiful words are and how ugly they are. Words are more
powerful weapons than guns and bombs after all.
One of the words that were used on the Facebook campaign is
wonder: {won·der} n. surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful,
unexpected, or inexplicable.
This is the reaction one gets from watching this film. The
Book Thief will make you smile, cry, laugh and then leave your heart broken
with its haunting beauty. As a high ranking member of the Book Snob Society I
can find reasons why the film adaptation of this story does not do it justice
but those reasons are ultimately shallow because this adaptation is really good
and captures the important themes of the book.
The story is narrated by Death (Roger Allam) who is
surprisingly pleasant given the nature of his job, which he seems to dislike.
Set in Nazi Germany from April 1938 the plot follows the life of Liesel
Meminger (Sophie Nélisse) as she adjusts to a new life on Himmel Street in the
fictional town of Molching with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann (Geoffrey
Rush and Emily Watson). This is the story of a German girl trying to make sense
of her small, fragile life amidst the horrors of Nazi Germany leading up to
World War 2. Liesel finds a solace of sorts in books and words and tries to
make sense of her circumstances through them. She doesn’t understand all the
hate going around and no one really knows how to answer why so much hate can
spread like a disease.
Many stories of this terrible era
in humanity’s history are told from the viewpoint of Jewish people or other
people who were affected by the atrocities committed by the Nazis but this is
the story of a small German town just trying to survive when the world has gone
mad. Sophie Nélisse is wonderful as Liesel Meminger! She plays the role with
the utmost grace. The rest of the cast also deliver stellar performances.
Geoffrey Rush’s portrayal of Hans is sincere and makes you love the man who
teaches Liesel to read, to love and to be courageous albeit seemingly foolish
in the dreadful time they live in. Rosa is stern and rules the Hubermann
household with an iron fist but you can tell she loves them all. Max (Ben
Schnetzer), the young Jewish man that the Hubermanns hide in their basement
manages to convey a lot of sadness and joy in that cramped space and is one of
the characters to steals the show. My personal favourite character is Liesel’s
best friend, Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch). This lemon haired boy is all heart
and you can’t help but love him.
This is a great movie. It’s not
best movie depicting the period but it does offer a slightly different
perspective into it and it is beautifully shot. The oppressive Nazi propaganda
is a constant backdrop to the story and it constantly reminds you of the
bleakness of the place the story is set in. The music by John Williams adds
quite a lot to the tone if this film and is moving.
Rudy envisioning himself as Jesse Owens
Some people feel that it’s too sad.
I don’t think so. It is sad but it also shows how normal people overcome
terrible situations and how kind and selfless they can be. I think the story,
like all good stories, is what J.R.R. Tolkien called eucatastrophe – the good
tale that breaks your heart.
Put some tissues in your pocket or
handbag and give The Book Thief a watch. It’s a good movie. That is all.
I get very excited about things. It's the way I'm built. My parents used excitable atoms to make me. But, whatever. I went to go see The Book Thief last night and Sophie
Nélisse stole my ol' literary heart as Liesel Meminger. I shall post a review tomorrow because you really should go see it. Don't even wait for the review. Just go see it.
If I have to use one word to describe this movie it would be wonder :).
