Having loved the book, I was intrigued to see how the movie would tell Liesel’s story. As with most adaptations, pieces were left out, blended, added, discounted, and hidden. But my experience reading the book was so recent, I was easily able to fill in many of the gaps (e.g., I giggled when Mama first served her soup, knowing how tales of the soup ran through the story and how it had been described on the pages).
Unfortunately, my movie companion did not have the same background, so the movie left him not as satisfied. He didn’t get to see the broader issues involved in Liesel sneaking into the mayor’s wife’s library. He didn’t get to see how *that* relationship developed and deepened, leading to the final scenes, which also glossed over how people found themselves together. He didn’t see how slowly Liesel and Papa tackled reading (perhaps the worst side of the movie, treating it as if one could learn to read in a matter of a few nights). Instead, he was presented with a film that told an interesting story of a little girl and loss in a very (too?) pretty way that speeds through several years of time, just stopping in from time to time and giving snippets of this story, a story, in the end, that was probably better left to the pages of a novel that so beautifully painted the pictures of pain, loss, love, and friendship.
Death remains as the narrator, and I thought this was done well enough. And although I often don’t directly notice such things, I thought the musical score in The Book Thief was perfectly moving and fitting. Geoffrey Rush delighted me; I think there was actually a twinkle in his eye. And Emily Watson, as Mama, suitably conveyed her many dimensions. The little girl playing Liesel also gave great life to her character as she grows up. With decent acting, beautiful scenery, and a moving score, the thing that remains lacking was in the adaptation of the story, an adaptation that left too many gaps and seemed to miss some of the most important pieces in this tale.
If you’ve read the book, you’ll probably enjoy the movie. If you’ve not, you’ll no doubt wonder why I did as much as I did.