The Fundy Film Society

“The Book Thief is a wondrous, richly textured, sometimes heartbreakingly effective movie about good Germans, including a remarkable little girl and the couple who took her in and loved her as their own daughter while risking everything to shelter a teenage Jewish boy living in their basement. . .screenwriter Michael Petroni and director Brian Percival (who has helmed a number of episodes of Downton Abbey) have done a marvelous, respectful job of capturing the epic sadness and the moments of pure, soul-soaring bliss in the book. . . .this is one of the best movies of the year, featuring one of the most perfect endings of any movie in recent memory.” Richard Roper, Chicago Sun-Times

“If there can be such a thing as a sweet, reflective fable about death and the Holocaust, THE BOOK THIEF is it. Based on the bestseller by Markus Zusak, the film tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl left in the care of foster parents Hans Hubermann (Geoffrey Rush) and his strict laundress wife, Rosa (Emily Watson). It’s gentle Hans who teaches the illiterate Liesel how to read. Since the story is set in Nazi Germany, you can see what’s coming when good Christian Hans takes in Max Vandenburg, a Jewish boy whose father saved Hans during World War I. Hidden in the basement (a distinct allusion to Anne Frank’s attic), Max is read to by Liesel, who steals books from the library of a local bürgermeister. A bond grows, and some valuable and scary life lessons are learned….Rush, an actor of unerring grace and grit, gives a touching, vital performance. He doesn’t shout. Neither does the film. Its grieving heart is never in question”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone