Film Review: 'The Book Thief'

Been a wee while since I've posted. I was under the impression that I would be free as a bird after exams and, although I've been filling my days with things I want to do, I've been filling them all the same! But more on that another time. Back to topic.

It's been almost 2 weeks since my Mum and I went to see 'The Book Thief' as a sort of end of exams treat. It was a 'Take 2' movie at Cineworld, which is a film shown on a Thursday that is 'brought back' because it has left regular cinema listings and you can get 2 tickets, 2 small drinks and a regular popcorn for £10! Great deal!

Anyway, we went and saw it and, having read the book, I was really excited. If you'd like to read my review of the novel, click here and this might be helpful to anyone who doesn't know the storyline in appreciating this post. because I'm not going to repeat my summary of the plot.

I wasn't disappointed on the whole. The film portrayed the characters well in terms of the direction by Brian Percival and the actors were very good. My only reservation was in how much of the book was completely absent from the film and how much had to be altered. I understand totally that creating a perfect film copy of Zusak's novel would end up producing a 5 hour film or something! And I really feel that it was an excellent adaptation considering. But, when I'd read it so recently, I was bound to immediately notice differences and to compare.

Principal character Leisel was played by Sophie Nelisse who was very good. Her co-star, Nico Liersch also performed very well as Rudy Steiner. They brought the characters to life, with Nelisse grasping Liesel's passion and Liersch successfully interpreting Rudy's cheekiness and kind-heart.

I thought that Emily Watson was the absolute perfect choice for the role of Rosa Hubermann. She embraced the role perfectly, sporting a brilliant balance of harshness and a good heart.

The relationship between Max (Ben Schnetzer) and Liesel was also developed nicely, considering the lack of time.

Despite there being numerous differences from the book, for the most part they were minor. However, one change I will mention because I didn't like it is... WAIT! SMALL  SPOILER ALERT! SKIP THE REST OF THIS PARAGRPAH IF YOU REALLY TRULY DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING OF THE STORYLINE!

Rudy doesn't guess that Liesel and her family are hiding a Jewish man until much much later and Liesel certainly doesn't tell him. Rudy doesn't steal her diary and read it. I just didn't like that change and, at the moment, I can't really explain why. But if anyone happens to read this who has both read and seen 'The Book Thief', please get in touch with your opinion on this.

To sum up: Brilliant film, DVD out now so worth a watch. But if you want a true insight into Zusack's story then read it too!

Catriona x

Film Review: '21 Jump Street'

Wooooooo!!! Sorry, just thought I'd take a moment to celebrate the fact that all my exams are over!! Last one was today and I am so relieved, though at the same time it hasn't really sunk in properly! Anyway, down to what I am meant to be writing about...

My sister bought this film on DVD in the Easter Holidays because she had seen it at a friend's house and really liked it, but I've been so caught with school work that Sunday night was my first real opportunity to watch it with her.

She told me it was hilarious, and parts were quite funny, but I wouldn't say it was the funniest movie I've ever watched.

I thought the concept was kind of cool, and that Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill were excellent and comical in their portrayal of two ex-enemies turned best friends, who, as part of their jobs as
police officers, take on an undercover mission to put an end to a new illegal drug circulating in a local high school by pretending to be students.

Being a comedy, I understand that most of it wasn't meant to be read into too far, so I will keep my 'kind of unrealistic' comment brief and to the point: WHEN WILL MOVIE WRITERS LEARN THAT THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN HAVE A MENTAL CAR CHASE DOWN A MOTORWAY OR SHOOT ABOUT 100 BULLETS IN A HOTEL SUITE WITHOUT ANYONE BATTING AN EYLID!!!

Just a case of my personal preference, but the whole shooting scene just wasn't for me, I felt as though it was unnecessary violence which kind of took away from the amusement.

Similarly, I'm pretty squeamish and so I found the introduction of the theme of the effects of hallucinogens kind of, well squirmy I suppose! But I soon realised that the idea was used mostly in humour and not in a real medical aspect and was fine! Its not at all medical for anyone reading thinking that they're squeamish too!

Other than just enjoying the daftness of the whole thing, I took from it one message. The characters are 'cool, fit dude turns science geek' (Tatum) and 'nerd turns popular' (Hill) and it kind of highlighted the differences in trends from generation to generation and even smaller gaps than that. It showed how things and people can go from being popular to hated and back again in no time and I thought that that idea was cleverly captured.



Brie Larson and Jonah Hill in '21 Jump Street'

There is a touch of romance, which is particularly sweet because it involves Hill's character winning the heart of his gorgeous co-star in the school play, Molly (Brie Larson) and forming an untypical match which ends swiftly. It was nice to see a film that could include a hint at two people having feelings for one another without needing to focus the entire movie around it. I'm a bit of a romantic at times so it was different for me to appreciate a different balance of storyline in what has to be classed as an action comedy.

Overall, '21 Jump Street' is a fantastic feel good and I'm delighted to hear that '22 Jump Street' is out in about a months time, so keep a look out for a review on that!

Like something out of a story...

I was working at the café at the weekend and I was in for set-up. I was outside doing the lovely job of cleaning the bird poo of the outdoor tables (how classy!) and getting the balcony ready for opening when I suddenly had a kind of a moment of realisation.

I felt, right there on a sunny Saturday morning by the sea, like the kind of character I would read about. A girl from a tourist coastal town working in a coffee house, looking out onto the ocean...

Ever since we moved here (6 years ago.. wow!), and even before that to be honest, my Mum has had an adoration for the sea, and walks along the beach almost every day no matter the weather. She appreciates how lucky we are to live where we live and I always thought that I did too, but now I realise that I took it for granted.

Every weekend, loads of tourists come to eat and drink at my work, and its weird thinking that the town where I go to school, go buy milk or whatever, go to the library and the swimming pool, learn to drive etc. etc., is visited so often by tourists, as well as treated as a day trip place for beach lovers.

I remember going to the beach at Southport or Blackpool being a rare treat when I was younger, and I remember that I felt like I was just visiting on holiday for a few months after I moved here. But now, over 6 years on, its just a place where I live and that's a bit sad.

After my realisation I look at my surroundings differently, and feel thankful that I live in a lovely little seaside town, like something out of a story...

Stonehaven Beach ~ Picture from Visit Scotland ~ I do not own the rights to this image

Book Review: 'Billy and Me' by Giovanna Fletcher

I heard about this book through watching Carrie Hope Fletcher and Tom Fletcher on YouTube, and so I took it out of the library and finished it in about 2 days, completing in on Monday.

It isn't what I'd necessarily call a 'serious' read, but it was exactly what I needed after just finishing 'The Book Thief', which depressed me a little!

Brief Summary: Sophie May is a girl living in a small village, working in a teashop, her best friends an elderly lady, her mum drifts in and out of depression, her sad past has stolen her confidence and she's not really sure what she wants to do with her life. Then a new film-version of a literary classic begins filming nearby, and with it comes the film star cast, including the charming Billy Buskin. The pair fall in love, but Billy's world isn't all that Sophie expected.

For a debut novel, 'Billy and Me' is well written, I think. It was exactly the kind of light hearted story I like, but it also had underlying messages too.

I didn't love all parts of the novel, I'll be honest.

I'm a young girl who's never known the feeling of being in love, I love to read and I work in a little café in a reasonably small town. So, although I'm far from BEING Sophie, I could relate to elements of her situation. And, however much I wish I could, the idea of there whirlwind romance seem a bit too unrealistic to believe in. I know its probably just being cynical, and I did thoroughly enjoy the tale for what it was, but even if I could believe the 'famous lad falls for normal girl' part, which I suppose is possible, the speed at which they are suddenly acting like a married couple is a bit odd in my opinion, considering their only in their early twenties. But, I admit, I am being very picky.

The thing that got to me, and I cannot make up my mind if this was a fault in the writing, on Fletcher's part, or a personal thing to me as a reader that I interpreted myself, but as the book went on, I began to really really dislike main character Sophie May. I think part of it was deliberately included by Fletcher, because her aim was to delineate the paranoia Sophie feels when her boyfriend is so desirable, but I just felt as though almost the entire story was focused on Sophie's jealousy and protectiveness over a boy who isn't even cheating on her and who, lets face it, hasn't exactly known her that long. I'm not suggesting that him being a star gives him special treatment when it comes to treating his girlfriend (if only just!) with respect, but, as far as I was concerned, the character of Billy was going out of his way to please Sophie and continue his usual life.

There is one particular point, and you'll need to read the book yourself to fully understand, when I literally wanted to scream at the girl! Billy Buskin is on set performing a sexual scene and, to be fair, his co-star is his ex girlfriend and his current girlfriend, Sophie, is watching. But I was so angry at her reaction and the fact that she put all the blame on him and then blanked him. ITS HIS JOB GIRL! IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE THEN LEAVE AS HE SAID HE WOULD TOTALLY UNDERSTAND IF YOU DID!!

Haha, I read so much into it, but it's just because the character's came to life to me, which I believe indicates and excellent author. So I'm really not being disrespectful to the writing, if Giovanna Fletcher can manage to make me want to punch one of her character's into sanity, then that's some achievement. My query is, was it intentionally like that?!

To be honest, both lead character's change throughout the book, into people I didn't imagine them being when they're first introduced to the story, and I suppose, if a little disappointing for the reader, it resembles real life quite accurately, all of us change.

And so, I genuinely hope I haven't put anyone off reading this, because its an ideal teen read and I really want to read Giovanna's second book. But If you do read or have read, please comment what you thought of the character of Sophie.. I'm really curious to know if its just me that felt the need to let out my frustration at her- its quite possible that, since I read this when breaking from studying, I was just tired and stressed and a re-read would change my view!

Catriona x x

Book Review: 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak

I finished this book last Friday, but been kind of busy with exams! Feeling quite relaxed now with just one exam to go, so thought I'd get down to this review... which could take a while!

I had no idea how long this book was! I purchased it for my kindle kind of on a whim when I heard that a film was being made of it, and started to read it a few pages at a time about a week or two before the Easter holidays. But I'd never (and still haven't) seen a paper copy of it, and boy is it long!


But I have got to say, 'The Book Thief' is one of the best books I have read in a while. It attracted me instantly because it was based on a real historical period of time. I've just finished (literally my exam was today!) studying my Higher History and we did a lot of work on WW1, but from a Scottish perspective. I found it fascinating to read about the kind of experiences faced in Germany.

It could be argued that Zusak makes the book too long, as not every part seems crucial to the tale and there are quite lot of back stories and things that feed off from the main thread. However, I urge anyone reading 'The Book Thief' and thinking this to please keep reading until the end. I don't want to give away too much, but lets just say that the last chapter before the Epilogue had me in tears, because, without really realising, you become extremely attached to the characters created. It's this that makes me believe that Zusak is a genius, and this novel is a must-read.

I think an important thing for me to mention is Zusak's extremely unique style. The book is narrated by Death, though this isn't particularly obvious from the start. For me, it was a case of suspecting that it was narrated by death, before having it confirmed later on, but never outright stated. I felt this was an unusual approach, but fitted quite nicely into the story's makeup as it went on. However, I thought the opening few pages, before the real story of a little girl with a fascination for words begins, were a bit strange, as though you are supposed to gather some deep meaning from them but at an initial read sound like a load of mumble jumble psychological nonsense! But once the other characters, as opposed to just the narrator, are introduced, I was hooked!

Another thing that Zusak tends to do in his writing style is to be one of those authors that jumps around in the story, telling you what is to come before it does. In some books, this annoys me, but in 'The Book Thief' it came to be something I just accepted, WITH ONE EXCEPTION!! Despite me not needing any more prompting to cry, I think it was wrong for Zusak to tell the reader of an event near the end a couple of chapters before it occurred, because it was unnecessary to the appreciation of the story as a whole, and, had it been omitted, the effect of a very emotional chapter would have been unexpected and even more heart-wrenching.

A final point on style: Zusak, as death, chooses to leave little notes for the reader throughout the novel. This is hard to describe for someone who's not read it, bust he basically interrupts his telling of the story with a little heading and a note about something, or a quote, or something strange like that! Although some of these little notes were a bit pointless, in my opinion, some of them added to your insight into the story and so it was a clever little style technique which I hadn't seen before and which almost shouldn't have worked, but did anyway!

If I was to pick a favourite character, it would probably be Rudy, a young boy with a big heart and a really genuine personality. I think Zusak does an excellent job of creating both principal character Liesel and her best friend Rudy and in allowing the reader to share in their childhood and in their lives as they grow up. However, I also love the character of Hans Huberman, Liesel's 'Papa'. He's something special and, to me, he feel real, because I could picture my version of him in my head, right down to his mannerisms and tone of voice!

'The Book Thief' also has two messages running through. Actually I think it probably has many messages, but these are the two that jumped out at me; the importance of family, and the importance of words. These are two things that are really close to my heart and so I could especially relate and feel included in the world of Liesel Meminger.

I think I've said all I wanted to say about 'The Book Thief'. I admit it will take you a while but I strongly urge you to read it. It's just wonderfully written and a real treat to read, and it captures the life of one young mind in a wartime German village in a way that makes you feel like you were there.

If you do read, let me know what you think. Similarly, if you watch the film, leave a comment, as I've missed it in the cinema and will probably watch it on DVD, but want to know if it will live up to my expectations?!

Catriona xx