The Thief Lord
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Movie Reviews of The Thief Lord
Movie Review: The Thief Lord Rules!! :)
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book as a requirement for school, and when the movie came out i was so happy.
Movie Review: Wow!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, I never read the book, but the film blew me away!!! I loved all the characters(espcially Scipio).Movie Review: Probably one of the best non-American family adventures in recent history
Summary: 4 Stars
The Thief Lord was released in my country a couple of months ago and for some reason it immediately caught my attention. A German family adventure/fantasy movie with English language and with English actors - all of that seemed quite unusual and therefore interesting to me. At the same time I never heard of Cornelia Funke's novel of the same name so I didn't know exactly what to expect from it.
I watched Thief Lord today and actually I liked it. It was really fascinating to watch something fresh and different from typical and often annoying Hollywood family stuff. For young ones Thief Lord is an enjoyable family adventure with talented young cast against the background of one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world, Venice. For grown-ups besides that it's a story of bitter loneliness and sometimes misunderstanding which unite most of the characters. Two brothers fifteen years old Prosper and much younger Bo after death of their parents are separated. The younger goes to the old childless relatives and Prosper has been sent to an orphanage. But brothers can't live without each other and for six years old Bo Prosper is the only person who cares about him and loves him so much. Desperate, they run away. They have nowhere to go in the whole world and they are heading to Venice, the city that their mother loved so much. But the city is not welcome to runaways with no money and only unexpected help of a mysterious boy, who called himself Thief Lord and saves them from more troubles. Bo and Prosper join him and his team of orphans who find a refuge in a deserted movie theater. Soon our heroes learn that ancient city is full of surprises and what's is more that strange magical things can happen there. They become involved into rather unexpected events and lives of different characters collide in Venice. We meet a lonely wife and husband, who also heading to Venice, trying to find a runaway child, who was merely a way to suppress their own loneliness, a lonely detective, who was hired to find Bo and some other characters. However, finally for many of our heroes salvation from their troubles will come in a rather unexpected way for each other.
But the loneliest and most suffering from that is mysterious Thief Lord himself who is trying to keep his secrets inside of him. This key character is playing by Rollo Weeks, who looks very good in his rather complicated part. Both Aaron Johnson (Prosper) and Jasper Harris also left very positive impression from their acting, self-reliance and naturalness. Adult characters sometimes look cartoonish but it's really important that they never collapse into stylish clichés so typical for Hollywood family entertainment. Even if because of limited running time sometimes the movie doesn't have enough room to development of some characters we know enough about them to feel sympathy or antipathy to them, which is very important for such a film. The acting among adult cast was also not bad with most memorable and likable performance from Jim Carter as Victor.
Thief Lord In the beginning the movie is fast paced and probably a little too short but mostly it's exciting well-filmed film with interesting and original story. The soundtrack one it's own looked very good and it's a very good addition to visual part even if sometimes the music is abstracted from what we saw on screen. And let me to say that visuals for such low-budgeted production were also not too bad. If you are looking for a good non-American family adventure film on English language as an alternative for Hollywood production featuring talented cast, probably you would be unable to find better choice than Thief Lord. Also it's worth to notice that the movie mostly successfully avoids typical and clichéd for American family films crude humor and language.
I know possibly I'm too generous and surely Thief Lord is not a flawless masterpiece but I rated it 9 out of 10. Unfortunately such enjoyable and beautifully shot family movies so rarely appear in our movie theaters or video stores.
And the last one thing that I almost forgot. I liked very much title song "Orphan skies". It was pretty good one.
Movie Review: An overlooked diamond in the rough
Summary: 4 Stars
Released theatrically in Europe but not here, this film based on the beautifully conceived and written novel by Cornelia Funke makes a lovely film. Many of its high points have already been noted in the positive reviews here. As in the book, the film does manage to highlight the relationships between the children for the deep, trusting bonds that they are, especially and most touchingly, that between the brothers, Bo and Prosper. Each child is terrifically portrayed, from the elusive Scipio to the "Hedgehog" and Mosca, a wonderful, welcome and much-needed person of color. Mosca gets his own chance to shine and his personal odyssey becomes a charming and heartbreaking short film of its own. The story of Scipio, so carefully and lovingly told in the book, does get short shrift and at times the film seems so rushed. My son (11) and I read the book breathlessly together and then he read it again on his own. He voiced the same disappointments as I in the pace of the film.
Vanessa Redgrave has a touching cameo as the old beloved sister who tells the magical story of the "merry go round" (it feels likes she wants to say "carousel"!).
The story, in the book and successfully in the film, is a truly original one, and comparisons to Harry Potter seem a stretch and unfair (to both authors and their books). The Thief Lord needs no comparisons, it stands on its own and certainly stands up under repeated watchings (for both my son and I). It isn't the masterpiece that the book is but it is well-made and obviously carefully done with a marvelous sense of its own success. One addition that was annoying and superfluous was the hooking up of Prosper with the orphan girl, Hornet. The book did well without such pandering and the film would have too. Barbarosa's character is played for laughs and done well. The "Conte" and his sister's transformations are done with the right amount of mystery and fun and Scipio becomes even more handsome with his. The magic is handled well, I thought, without too much fuss and decent effects.
Movie Review: Wonderful, just wonderful
Summary: 4 Stars
I had read the Thief Lord, and really liked it, but the ending never really clicked with me. Suddenly, Venice seemed almost supernatural, which came completely out of the blue, and Scpio's decision to become grown-up (although you understood why it was done) seemed like a huge mistake. I had really enjoyed this book, until that part.
But of course, when I saw that it was made into a movie, I had to see it. I was fully prepared to be completely disappointed with the movie, and complain that it was nothing like the book, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The movie was absolutely wonderful! The story was summarized to the main plot very nicely and most of the dialogue seemed to come straight out of the book. The acting was superb. The soundtrack was great. And, most importantly it visually answered my questions.
When Bo sees the creatures from the Merry-Go-Round, you actually believe Venice (and the Merry-Go-Round) has these magical powers. Also, I was more acceptant of Scipo's life-altering decision, after seeing how he contently fit in to the adult world (something that I thought was never done to my satisfaction in the book).
Although, the movie is obviously a low-budget film. I found the special effects, quite refreshing to today's computer-generated creatures. For some reason, I found it to be even more believable that way.
There were only one problems I found with the movie. One was the lack of knowledge you had for the supporting characters. For instance, I didn't even get that Hornet had a crush on Prosper, until after it was said. I understand that you can't fit all of the characters history from the movie into the book, but a little would be nice.
But anyway,this is probably one of the best family films I have seen in a long time and would please adults and children alike