Cert 12A
131 mins
BBFC advice: Contains scenes of emotional distress and moderate threat
Every time I go to London, I start by wishing we lived there and after two days realise why we don't.
The car journey from Walthamstow to Wandsworth on Sunday morning lasted nearly 90 minutes and, as a consequence, my movie-watching plans for the day were in tatters.
So, a quick bodyswerve away from a Tamil film which had already started meant we took in Brian Percival's The Book Thief.
This adaptation of Markus Zusak's novel centres on the life of a young girl, Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), whose parents have been taken away by the authorities in Nazi Germany.
She is placed with a tough-as-nails washerwoman (Emily Watson) and her more kindly accordion-playing husband (Geoffrey Rush).
Liesel is a free spirit but her actions, often in league with her best friend (Nico Liersch), threaten to bring danger to her and her new family.
Meanwhile, her new mother and father have a big secret that they are desperate to keep hidden from the SS.
The Book Thief is a perfectly engaging if slightly overlong drama with Rush, Watson and Nelisse all impressing in their respective roles.
Percival creates an atmosphere of suspicion and, indeed, brutality which effectively reflects the scenario in late 1930s and early 1940s Germany.
And there is a eeriness created by the narration of 'death', voiced by Roger Allam.
Oddly, 'death' speaks in an Oxford English accent, while for the rest of the movie the characters speak with a heavy German one or it reverts to subtitled German.
It has to be said that this concentration on phony guttural voicework is a tad distracting.
Nevertheless, The Book Thief will please many film fans, despite there being a sense of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' because it falls short of the standard set by those who vied for an academy award last weekend.
Laughs: a couple of chuckles
Jumps: none
Vomit: regurgitation of soup
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10
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