The first thing that struck me in the movie was how quickly Liesel learnt to read. Perhaps because when I was reading the book I had the opposite reaction and wondered why it took her so long.
I did find it a little disappointing that they slightly adjust the storyline chronologically and made other minor alterations. Mostly I understood why they did this. After all the book is 554 pages long and the movie is 130 minutes. In a movie there is limited time to develop all the relationships that existed in the book so they understandably zeroed in on the important ones. The one change I really didn’t understand was why Rudy’s father was conscripted into the army before Rudy was chosen to go to the elite school. Rather than his conscription being a result of Rudy’s parents not allowing Rudy to go. However in the end this was a minor point.
I was pleased they toned down some of the bad language and violence. In this, Hollywood surprised me! In the book children were regularly severely punished for minor misdemeanours but maybe it was because they were aiming at a young teenager audience and needed it to be rated PG.
Overall I felt the movie covered all the important parts of the book. It is a great story of overcoming adversity, valuing relationships and developing you own uniqueness – regardless of whether you read the book or see the movie.
