Film Review: Disneyfication of the Holocaust

24 January 2014 - 03:18 By TYMON SMITH
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TWEE: 'The Book Thief' doesn't do justice to its horrific subject
TWEE: 'The Book Thief' doesn't do justice to its horrific subject

The Book Thief

Director:Brian Percival

Cast: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Nico Liersch, Ben Schnetzer, Roger Allam

Adapted from the popular, heartstring-tugging novel by Markus Zusak, this is two hours of Holocaust light material that, in spite of looking pretty good, having a strong cast and tugging on the heartstrings, fails to be interesting in any significant way.

The story is of Liesel (Nélisse), a child sent to live with adoptive parents in World War 2 Germany who finds solace from the horrors of the war in books and stories. She shares this world with Max (Schnetzer), the Jewish refugee her adopted parents are hiding in their basement.

Narrated by Death (Allam) in dulcet tones more appropriate to a Christmas tale than a story of hardship under fascism, Percival's adaptation suffers from a kind of Disneyfication of its material and an unwillingness to truly make the horrors of the era nearly horrific enough. Rush and Watson do their best under the circumstances, but they can't do enough to give their characters the empathy that's needed to make their fates engaging, and the wide-eyed naïveté of Liesel is initially effective but quickly becomes painfully dull and predictable.

This is all made the more exasperating because on many levels there's not much wrong with the approach to the material - the period detail is sound, cinematography good and the music is what you expect from John Williams in one of his sentimental moods.

Unfortunately the film's failure to effectively balance the rhythms of Liesel's domestic experience and the nasty shocks of the real world result in everything having the same, steady, chocolate-box lit air of contentment that lulls you into indifference. In a story narrated by death you have to be prepared for tragedy, but, by the time the "not-so grim" reaper makes his entrance, there are too many dry eyes in the house to leave any kind of lasting impression.

 

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