The Book Thief

The Book Thief is one of the best movies I've seen this year! I came out crying, but that may be more me than the movie, though it is to me a very emotional story. It's a WWII tale told from the hearts of German citizens (unusual!) featuring a girl, Liesel, who is abandoned by her mother with her brother dying en-route to their older adoptive parents. There's the coming of age story of this girl and the cute neighbor boy Rudy that gets overshadowed at times by Hitler, war, death, and the Anne Frank like hiding of a Jew in their house. The hard scrabble everyday life of poor people in a Charles Dickens like German village is beautifully filmed with a just-right music score not calling attention itself but supporting a story of faith, love and survival. Then there is the whole other story of books and the power of writing and even a motivation for me to write! I'll see the second installment of The Hobbit soon, but I'm already pretty sure this will be the better of the two movies. The adoptive older father and the girl's loving relationship reminds me in some ways of the supportive relationship of father-daughter love Juli and I had during our difficult years. Powerful!