Jack and I liked very much this adaptation of the young adult novel about a tween in Nazi Germany who becomes obsessed with books after learning to read quite late. Young Sophie Nélisse is delightful as the scrappy girl and Geoffrey Rush (last blogged in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and Emily Watson (most recently in War Horse) wonderful as her adoptive parents, supportive and curt, respectively. Director Brian Percival (six episodes of Downton Abbey) is new to me but leads with a steady pace. Michael Petroni (co-writer of one of my faves, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)) adapts the book by Markus Zusak.
The Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack by John Williams (last in Lincoln) is lovely and can be previewed here. The gorgeous cinematography is by Florian Ballhaus (some of my favorites of his work are The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and Red).
As usual, the haters, er, critics, are hating, averaging 46% on rottentomatoes to audiences' 76. Rated PG-13 for some violence, this is playing in at least one second-run theatre this week near me, in time for spring break. Don't worry about subtitles for the kids. Although set in Germany, it's almost entirely in English.
No comments:
Post a Comment