Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Director: Brian Percival 

Actors: Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Ben Schnetzer 

Is it possible to show a child's view of Nazi Germany? That's one of the issues The Book Thief, a middling adaptation of Australian author Markus Zusak's bestselling young adult novel, struggles with but fails to resolve.

Set in a country falling under the sway of Adolf Hitler and his murderous anti-Semitism before and then during World War II, the film's mix of innocence and hinted-at nightmarishness isn't wholly satisfying.

The story is narrated by Death (Roger Allam), who sounds less like the Grim Reaper and more like a cultured English professor. 

Death is about to be very busy, but nonetheless takes notice of Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), a young girl who has watched her little brother die and been separated from her mother before arriving at the home of her adoptive parents.

The film, from English television director Brian Percival, uses the fantastic as a way of removing horror, rather than accentuating it. 

Very bad things happen on the periphery of the story, but they never quite intrude into the world of Liesel. 

Children do perceive their circumstances differently, but the sheer weight of history hangs uneasily over the film's premise.

It helps that Liesel is received by Geoffrey Rush's Hans and Emily Watson's Rosa Hubermann, with the pair of gifted character actors playing up the mercurial and stern respectively. 

In their nondescript village, the pair accept the rise of National Socialism but do not support it, eventually hiding a young Jewish man, Max (Ben Schnetzer), in their basement. 

Hans teaches Liesel to read, while talking to the stranded Max instils descriptive power in the young girl, and as a contrast to set pieces such as a book burning in the town square, the picture's belief in the power of art and the enduring strength of words in a time of totalitarianism and censorship strikes a simple but effective inspirational tone.

smh.com.au