The Book Thief is a rare kind of film for its day. It gleams like the sun, glistens like rays on the surface of water – for here is a dark tale that lights up the very soul.
The Book Thief is the first movie article from my Friday’s Finest segment to appear here in 2025 and it couldn’t be a more apt one to begin with. During the Christmas Holidays just past, my children and I saw The Book Thief twice and we adored it the same both times. It’s one of those movies that as a parent you feel blessed to be able to share with your children, such is its beauty – steeped in historical context of an important time in 20th Century history, specifically the Nazi era.
Storyline:
The film is about a young girl living with her adoptive German family during the Nazi era. Taught to read by her kind-hearted foster father, the girl begins “borrowing” books and sharing them with the Jewish refugee being sheltered by her foster parents in their home. The film features a musical score by Oscar-winning composer John Williams.
The scenery is both breathtaking and captivating. One feels transported, yet insulated from the realities of a terrible war in a terrible time by the endearingly human performances of the actors and the depth they lent to their characters. There are few more enriching and ‘significant’ family movies I have seen. By the end I was a blubbering mess.
The young actress Marie-Sophie Nélisse (see left) was engrossing as the protagonist. The movie is largely seen through her eyes and she convinces over a full range of emotions. I was perplexed during the viewing – how I hadn’t seen her in anything else, because she’s going to be a superstar; and low and behold just 2 weeks ago I saw her in a fantastic Canadian French-language drama film called Monsieur Lazhar which I will write about in the coming weeks.
Geoffrey Rush, although portrayed a “Disney Dad” as some reviewers suggested; was inspirational and perfectly cast to my mind. He manages to convey the emotions of a man living with fear, yet playing it down for the sake of his young adopted charge. ‘Death‘ (as the narrator) tells the story, which makes the severity and grimness of their predicament all the more compelling.
Films of The Book Thief’s quality have become rare these days and are often overlooked or tossed to their side by cynical critics (49% on RT) and dopamine junkies hellbent on their next Hollywood comic book action blockbuster fix. Films like this (from the producers of the Life of Pi) remind us all of our humanity. The film is rather traditional and almost doesn’t fit in with the rest of today’s movies (as aforementioned), but seems more aligned with the older classics.
References:
1. The Book Thief (Film) – Wikipedia
2. The Book Thief (2003) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
This sounds interesting, Matt. I like the book cover, too.
It’s such a gorgeous movie. I have been away the last few days with my daughter on holidays so I haven’t written here. I hope this message finds you well Hazel.
Oh, that sounds great. I hope you had a wonderful time. Spending time with the family is awesome.
Have a beautiful day, Matt.
It was so good. We were in the jungle and had such a great adventure. Thank you for your lovely thoughts.
Oh wow, in the jungle. I so love it. I’m happy for you.