The Thief Lord
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Movie Reviews of The Thief Lord
Movie Review: Review from a 10 year old
Summary: 2 Stars
I really enjoyed the book so I was excited to see it was made into a movie. Unfortunately, the movie is not near as good as the book. The movie was confusing at points and sometimes even silly. The book was much better. I'm glad we decided to rent it first.Movie Review: I can't believe this is the first one-star review for this movie
Summary: 1 Stars
..because it is bloody awful.
I just watched The Thief Lord with my children, and we were terribly disappointed. It's a confusing, implausible, poorly directed, very poorly acted mess of a movie. The setting, in Venice, is beautiful, and the young members of the cast are generally good looking (which, I have to confess, held the interest of our 12-year old) but those are the only points in its favor.
I'm not familiar with the book (which seems to be widely loved) so I couldn't make sense of the plot about a band of runaways, living secretly in Venice, who discover a magic roundabout. I still have no idea why ALL the characters in the movie appear to be English, even the street newspaper vendor - we are in Italy after all.
The director does a poor job of pacing the movie, and fails to create any sense of magic or drama. He handles the actors very badly indeed (perhaps his being a German working with an English cast didn't help) allowing the adults to ham it up outrageously, while leaving the childrens' perfomances flat and uninteresting. Alexie Sayle, as the gang's fence, is a particularly culpable ham; Rollo Weeks, whose performance as the Thief Lord Scipio is supposed to anchor the film, is dreadfully wooden, completely missing the charisma essential to the role.
This is one of the few movies that I've watched with my children where I can think of nothing to recommend it. Even the special effects at the end are so low-budget and unconvincing that they reminded me of a mid-1980s episode of Doctor Who.
You'd be better off spending your time and money elsewhere. If you're determined to watch a movie adaptation of a Cornelia Funke book, Inkheart is much, much more enjoyable.