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Fascist Fairytales

The holidays are approaching, which can mean only one thing: It's time for another Holocaust movie! However, "The Book Thief" isn't your average take on Nazi war atrocities. This one is for the whole family - a coming-of-age tale about a German girl growing up during the Nazi regime. But like a stale Sour Patch Kid, the film is blandly sweet on the outside, barely sour on the inside. Not much to offend, and also not much to say.

As in the Markus Zusak's novel, the film is narrated by Death (Roger Allam) - a whimsical, Harry Potter-like touch that gives a storybook coating to the tragedies about to unfold. We first meet Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) on a train heading to Stuttgart to be left with foster parents. Her mother, a communist, is forced to give her children to strangers so she may escape with her life. Sadly, Liesel's little brother dies on the way. After he is buried by the railroad tracks, she notices a book has fallen from the pocket of the gravedigger. She picks up the book and secrets it away in her coat.

 

In Stuttgart, Liesel meets her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. While Rosa (Emily Watson) is brittle and authoritarian, Hans (Geoffrey Rush) is jocular and kindly towards the little girl. She finds a friend in a neighbor, Rudy (Nico Liersch), but has a hard time fitting in at school. It's not long before it's discovered that Liesel can't read or write. Hans find the book she stole, the gravedigger's handbook, and he teaches her to read.

 

Liesel learns ridiculously quickly, and soon settles in to a "normal" life. As normal as you can get during the rise of Adolph Hitler. In Liesel's neighborhood, the Nazi party is merely a fact of existence. The children go to school wearing swastikas on their uniforms and pledge allegiance to Hitler, while the adults keep their heads down and their mouths shut to avoid any run-ins with the local party leaders. Liesel has no idea what the party is about - until she attends a book burning.

 

She learns more when Hans takes in the Jewish son of an old friend and hides him in the basement. Max (Ben Schnetzer) is a writer, and he and Liesel become fast friends. Liesel "borrows" books from the mayor's house and reads them to Max when he is ill. She never really understands, nor is it ever explained to her, why these things are happening. And therein lies the problem.

 

There's so much to work with here - German complicity, the indoctrination of children, the Allied bombing raids on civilians - but everything is glossed over. The film pulls too many punches for us to actually feel anything. With her golden curls and angelic face, Nélisse looks like an American Girl doll in a dirndl. The sugary sweetness of the film blunts the sense of heroism and admiration we're meant to feel for Liesel. In another director's hands, "The Book Thief" might have said so much more. The fact that it doesn't is tragic indeed.