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United States, Germany · 2013
Rated PG-13 · 2h 11m
Director Brian Percival
Starring Geoffrey Rush, Sophie Nélisse, Emily Watson, Nico Liersch
Genre Drama
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While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refuge is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.
Entertainment Weekly by Adam Markovitz
It would make for a pretty ghastly pageant if not for smart, understated turns by Watson and Geoffrey Rush as the charmingly Teutonic couple who rescue both Liesel and a stranded Jew (Ben Schnezter) — not to mention the movie itself — with honorable matter-of-factness.
The A.V. Club by Ben Kenigsberg
"Life Is Beautiful" may or may not have set a benchmark for tackiness in Holocaust cinema, but The Book Thief offers a hypothetical way in which the former might have been worse: At least it wasn’t narrated by Death.
The Book Thief has been brought to the screen with quiet effectiveness and scrupulous taste by director Brian Percival and writer Michael Petroni.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
The movie’s strong sense of empathy, enhanced by several noteworthy performances, ought to engage most viewers.
An embarrassing gut-punch of unfiltered schmaltz, but its sympathy for the devil-style humanism is well-meaning.
Where the book had a kernel of intellectual irony to it — words betray a nation — this drama goes shamelessly for the heart.
The Playlist by Kevin Jagernauth
The Book Thief covers a large span of time, but the film's episodic nature, often moving from one incident to the next with little time to pause or reflect, often obscures that fact and hinders an evocation of the cumulative effect the war has on the psyche of not just the Hubermanns, but their neighbors, too.
Overall, it’s engaging and serves its young audience well — a rare Holocaust movie that doesn’t strain to become Oscar bait.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
The simplicity of Michael Petroni’s script seems a drawback at first. But skilled director Brian Percival (Downton Abbey) slowly, effectively tightens the vise as evil intrudes into the life of this child.
Slant Magazine by R. Kurt Osenlund
Books themselves become the story's key symbol, representing the past and future, loss and possibility, of a place that's ground zero for some of history's darkest days.
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