Liesel comes to live with Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson), an unremarkable lower middle class couple who are defined by clearly-delineated traits. The story, which (as in the book) is narrated by the dulcet tones of Death (Roger Allam), focuses on Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), a young girl living in pre-WW2 Germany whose mother is forced to give up her children. Distributors don't have to resort to this sort of subterfuge when they have a praise-worthy production on their hands. There's not a single positive statement about the movie. The trailer touts this as coming "from the studio that brought you Life of Pi." It's also the studio that brought you Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and several hundred other films, but who's counting? We're then offered a barrage of laudatory quotes touting The Book Thief as "brilliant", "a major achievement", and "extraordinary", but there's a catch: those quotes are referring to the book. The marketing campaign is curious and reveals that there might possibly be something wrong with the movie. Like many wannabe Oscar contenders that wear pretentiousness as a badge of honor, The Book Thief is likely to be lauded primarily by those on the Fox payroll. A misfire in far too many meaningful aspects, The Book Thief is so bad that it's tough to decide whether it's better used as a sleep aid or watched while under the influence as an object of derision. I don't know whether Markus Zusak's young adult bestelling novel The Book Thief should be considered "unfilmable" but the adaptation, written by Michael Petroni and directed by Brian Percival, makes a compelling case that it shouldn't have been filmed.
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